PRESS: ABSTRACT CHARLESTON PAINTINGS

RL•S Gallery, SC, Features Works by John Duckworth
Urban Abstracts: Paintings by John Duckworth

CHARLESTON -- John Duckworth, the passionate creator of the Landscape Abstract series and Urban Abstracts has a series of paintings, which will be on display thru the months of June and July, depicting Charleston scenes. This series blends John's passion for painting, photography and the serenity of the low country. Using acrylic paint as an under layer followed by a top coat of epoxy, Duckworth has transformed traditional Charleston row houses and oak trees into contemporary abstract paintings.

John Duckworth's artwork is characterized by an intense love of movement, color theory and a fascination with the "captured moment." As a professional photographer and graphic designer, he incorporates "commercial" skills into his artwork, "The camera and the computer are simply modern tools of the trade," says Duckworth. "I use them just as early painters used the camera obscura and camera lucida - as tools for initial sketches."

John is interested in color relationships, abstraction, realism, deconstruction, the photographic image, design, and communication and his work reflects an appreciation of the natural beauty of landscape, cityscapes and human interaction within these environments.

This diversity of interests and styles isn't surprising, considering the long list of artists who acted as both mentors and teacher. Having worked under David Baze in San Diego for several years as a teenager, he then studied with Wayne Thiebaud at U.C. Davis, with ceramic artist Les Lawrence at Grossmont College and later earned his BA in Studio Art studying under Cliff Peacock, Michael Tyzack and Michelle Van Parys at the College of Charleston.

John Duckworth is currently working as an artist in two industries - as part owner and art director of a communications agency in Charleston and as a painter and photographer. Over the past five years, his paintings and photographs have been sold to collectors in New York, Charlotte, Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta, Charleston, and Canada.

"My art making is a continual process of reinvention, which parallels my own personal development. I begin with carefully planned ideas and concepts, but only when I no longer know what I am doing do good things happen," said John. "At its best it is an open-ended conversation."

Each Abstraction creates a dialogue about nature's continual growth and captures a fleeting moment. The paintings in this series can be viewed at Robert Lange Studios, Fine Art Gallery at 151 East Bay Street, in downtown Charleston.