Jeff Weaver, “Houses and City Hall.”
In “Transcending the Familiar,” Jeff Weaver paints nostalgia. Not sloppy, the-good-times-have-passed nostalgia. Weaver paints a with a clear eye, surveying what humans build and use, with honesty.
But almost no human figures are found in these two dozen or so modestly sized oils, on view through March 2 in the Heftler Gallery at Endicott College. The artist focuses on human endeavor, not the humans themselves. The results are striking.
Not everything will last. Most things need repair. But not because of some folly, or some miscalculation. Simply because time passes. Weaver captures this like a documentarian, then adds an artist’s richness to the simple scenes.
There is a bit of Hopper in Weaver’s view of the world—mainly downtown Gloucester and the docks, near where he keeps his Rogers Street studio. There’s a bit of Manet as well. The comparisons come easily: common street corners, homes, wharfs or landscapes, brought to vivid life through expressive technique.
But Weaver leaves overt storytelling out of his paintings. We wonder why nobody works on that dock, or waves from that porch. But we don’t see them. Why the street corner bends off into the distance without any clues. The human effort—the ordinary, quotidian effort that makes a home, that populates a street, that works a boat—is implied. Only that.
Jeff Weaver, “Cape Pond ice Wharf.”
Light in these paintings seems at once organic, and invested with meaning. Long late-afternoon shadows accent colorful paintings with darkness. Some works capture the hard whiteness of winter. Matte colors and sharp geometries are the rule—no squared-up compositions here, nothing perpendicular or parallel, nothing shiny. Compositions greet the eye at some angle, creating motion.
Brush technique creates intense textures on almost every surface. Weaver’s colors give a muted appearance, but up close a simple stucco exterior (“Morning Light”) holds fifteen difference shades. A tall stone wall, gray from a distance (“Yellow House”), holds blues, reds, and textures of purple and yellow.
Saturation envelopes each painting, as dense and meaningful as the rich brush work. It seems like every surface color actually contains every color.
Recognizable Gloucester landmarks—Our Lady, City Hall, Rose Wharf—create instant connections for locals. The demolished Taste O Sea tower may tug at heartstrings. But the impact of these paintings spreads more broadly.
In some of the most significant works in “Transcending the Familiar,” Weaver makes us ask, “How can we live around such beauty, and not realize it?”
An attention-grabbing lobby exhibition featuring the sculptural wall creations of Azubah Denjongpa, Maria Lauenstein and Jack Trompetter greets visitors entering the Manninen Center for the Arts. “Jeff Weaver: Transcending the Familiar” runs through March 2 in the Heftler Gallery. Visit endicott.edu or call 978 590-2979.