Thursday, March 2, 2017

James F.L. Carroll essay ...

"On Stage', and 'Archetype I' in progress
ON STAGE, 9'H X 7'W, 2010 - 2013 © Harryn Studios

Paul Harryn by James F.L. Carroll …

For nearly four decades I have been privileged to know, see, and watch a number of individuals grow into exciting, mature, working artists. Paul Harryn is one of them – a highly motivated artist who has persistently forged his path through full-time dedication to art for more than thirty years.

Like life, his work is composed of one layer at a time – often including simultaneous and interactive elements that crescendo into richly layered objects of substance. Objects, whose images are selectively stratified as the result of experience.

For Harryn, location is very important. He integrates the Spirit of Place into his work. His home-studio is in the forests along the Delaware River between Bucks County and the Pocono Mountains in eastern Pennsylvania. But this is only one of his work places, as he has also been producing art along the Pacific Ocean and deserts of California for the past twenty years.

He works, as Nature does, in the transformation of seasonal changes. When he is unable to complete a work he waits until the cycle returns, causing some paintings to take years to complete.

Harryn's work is derived from circumstructure and happenstance - from serendipity and calculation - from a learned and intuitive affiliation with environment, materials, and relevant contemporary issues. Knowing how and when to mindfully respond is part of Harryn's alchemy and magic.

Essay from "NATURAL SELECTION",  September 2012, New Arts Program exhibition brochure.


James Carroll with "Selective Memory" and "Pacificus"
at Harryn's studio (9.2012)