John McNamara
  • Recent Paintings
    • "Worlds" >
      • "The Obsession to Feel"
      • "Seduced"
      • "Whittling Down" 36" x 48" O/P/P 2020
      • "The Inextricable Hold" (2nd version) >
        • "Surveillance" >
          • "Breakdown"
      • "The Unforeseen and the Inevitable"
      • "Painters of the Past"
      • "Where is Matthew Barrall?"
      • The Gift of Consciousness: The Challenge to Negotiate Meaning
      • "The Modernists" >
        • "Five of All" 24" x 36" oil/paper/panel 2019
        • "Secular Sanctuary" 48" x 72" Oil/Paper/Panel 2019
        • "It's What's Under the Hood that Counts"
        • "The Trail of Seduction" >
          • "Where the First Kiss Leads" >
            • "Exit 18: Vigil for Jay DeFeo" >
              • "KINGDOM' >
                • "Real Light" 40" x 48" Oil/Paper/Panel 2001
                • "Safety"
                • "Speed and Compression"
                • "Futility"
                • "Disease"
                • "Echo"
                • "Lost"
                • "Integrated Polarities"
                • "Utilitarian Abstraction"
        • "Empathy"
      • "Tripping"
      • "The Showoff and the Introvert" >
        • "The Inextricable Hold"
      • "Encounter" >
        • "Solitude" >
          • "The Suitors" >
            • "WoW" 20" x 24" oil/paper/panel 2013 >
              • "Running" 24" x 30" oil/paper/panel 2013
              • "Echo"
              • "Cycle" 30" x 40" Oil/Paper/Panel 2017 >
                • "Apex" 30" x 20' oil/paper/panel 2013 >
                  • "Compressed"
                  • "Magic" 20" x 30" oil/paper/panel 2013
              • "Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained" 9" x 12" oil/paper/panel 2013
              • "Transcendent Banality" >
                • "Unreal"
              • "Glimmer" 36" x 48" o/p/p 2019
              • "Death Valley" 12" x 12" oil/paper/panel 2013
            • 5.10.16 - Landscape >
              • "Bridges and Plumbing"
              • "The Man"
              • "Possibilities" 20" x 30" oil/paper/panel 2014
            • "Inside Out"
            • "Second Mortgage"
            • "Leveled"
            • "Fracture"
            • "The New Sculpture"
            • "Climbing"
            • "Duped"
            • "The Collapse of Pretense" >
              • "The Showoff and the Introvert"
            • "Mergers: 10 Paintings - 20Portraits" >
              • "Wise Ass"
              • "Century" 40" x 30" oil/paper/panel 2017
              • "Back to Square One"
            • "The Grid"
            • "Beauty and the Beast"
            • "Optimism's Promise" 36" x 48" O/P/P 2019
            • "Second Life"
            • "Moment"
            • "Monday"
            • "Landscape"
      • "The Doubt in Belief" >
        • "The Clan"
    • "Anticipation is Greater than Realization" >
      • "Fake"
      • "Deep" 30" x 90" Oil/Paper/Panel 2017/18 >
        • "Encroachment"
        • "5.18.16"
        • "The Rigor of Facade"
        • "Let's Twist Again Like We did Last Summer" >
          • "The Modernists" >
            • "Monsters" 36" x 48" o/p/p 2019
            • "Mixing It Up"
            • "Untitled" (after Richard Hamilton and Robert MCHale)
          • "The Art World"
      • "Just Visiting" >
        • "White on Color" >
          • "10 Moments from the Twentieth Century"
          • "The Long Shot" >
            • "Survival of the Fittest"
          • "Encroachment" >
            • "Battle"
            • "The Idolatry of Longevity"
      • "Philosophy" >
        • "Beauty"
        • "Generic Reconstitution"
        • "Faceoff" >
          • "The Conservator" >
            • "The Loss of Memory: The Inability to Forget 24" x 30" o/p/p 2019
            • "Pathway"
        • "Minimalism's Maximalism" >
          • "Flashback"
          • "Larry's Place"
        • "Lost"
        • "Transcendence" >
          • "Old Time Painting"
        • "Fifty Times the Area"
        • "Lost" >
          • "The Flow" >
            • "Tug of War"
            • "Unreal"
            • "Who's on Top?"
      • "The Conspiracy"
      • "Stay in Tonight"
      • "Asleep at the Wheel"
      • "Lights Out"
      • "Trip"
      • "Queen of the Feminists"
      • "Lost"
      • "Untitled" (after the painting titled "Anticipation is Greater than Realization, 20" x 30", 2013)
      • "Memory"
      • "Anthroland" 48" x 40" Oil/Paper/Panel 1998
      • "Weather System"
      • "Seduced Again"
      • "Flux" 12" x 32" oil/paper/panel 2013
      • "Intersection"
      • "Obsession"
      • "Unreal"
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The aura that fills the space touches on a sense of reflective solitude, not loneliness. I built a painting around this piece attempting to touch on the privacy, intimacy and magic that an involved artist experiences as time slips away in this contemplative space. The painting contains signs and symbols from religion, astronomy, alchemy and magic. There is also visual evidence of a New York loft, empty at the moment, but waiting for a painter to bring life to it. This entire venture could be seen a s a sappy, romantic, self-indulgent idealization, except for the fact that most painters do work alone in one place for extended periods of time. This relationship between the painter and the painting is enhanced and encouraged through the particularization of the space in which the painting comes to be.


Picture

Edward Hopper
Sun in an Empty Room

1963 (160 Kb); Oil on canvas, 28 3/4 x 39 1/2 inches; Private collection

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​ 
The catalyst for this piece was Edward Hopper's last painting, "Sun in an Empty Room." The room is void of people, but the light that fills the room touches upon a sense of reflective solitude, not loneliness. I built a painting around this piece trying to touch on the privacy, solitude and time that an artist experiences in this "place" researching lines of investigation while time calmly slips away. The painting contains signs and symbols from religion, astronomy, alchemy and magic. There is also visual reference to an available New York loft, empty at the moment, but waiting for an occupant to bring life to it. This whole venture could seem like a sappy, romantic, self-indulgent idealization, except for the fact that most painters do work alone in one place for extended periods. This relationship between the painter and painting is enhanced and encouraged through the particularization of the space in which the painting comes to be. I think in their hearts all painters are romantics.
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  • Recent Paintings
    • "Worlds" >
      • "The Obsession to Feel"
      • "Seduced"
      • "Whittling Down" 36" x 48" O/P/P 2020
      • "The Inextricable Hold" (2nd version) >
        • "Surveillance" >
          • "Breakdown"
      • "The Unforeseen and the Inevitable"
      • "Painters of the Past"
      • "Where is Matthew Barrall?"
      • The Gift of Consciousness: The Challenge to Negotiate Meaning
      • "The Modernists" >
        • "Five of All" 24" x 36" oil/paper/panel 2019
        • "Secular Sanctuary" 48" x 72" Oil/Paper/Panel 2019
        • "It's What's Under the Hood that Counts"
        • "The Trail of Seduction" >
          • "Where the First Kiss Leads" >
            • "Exit 18: Vigil for Jay DeFeo" >
              • "KINGDOM' >
                • "Real Light" 40" x 48" Oil/Paper/Panel 2001
                • "Safety"
                • "Speed and Compression"
                • "Futility"
                • "Disease"
                • "Echo"
                • "Lost"
                • "Integrated Polarities"
                • "Utilitarian Abstraction"
        • "Empathy"
      • "Tripping"
      • "The Showoff and the Introvert" >
        • "The Inextricable Hold"
      • "Encounter" >
        • "Solitude" >
          • "The Suitors" >
            • "WoW" 20" x 24" oil/paper/panel 2013 >
              • "Running" 24" x 30" oil/paper/panel 2013
              • "Echo"
              • "Cycle" 30" x 40" Oil/Paper/Panel 2017 >
                • "Apex" 30" x 20' oil/paper/panel 2013 >
                  • "Compressed"
                  • "Magic" 20" x 30" oil/paper/panel 2013
              • "Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained" 9" x 12" oil/paper/panel 2013
              • "Transcendent Banality" >
                • "Unreal"
              • "Glimmer" 36" x 48" o/p/p 2019
              • "Death Valley" 12" x 12" oil/paper/panel 2013
            • 5.10.16 - Landscape >
              • "Bridges and Plumbing"
              • "The Man"
              • "Possibilities" 20" x 30" oil/paper/panel 2014
            • "Inside Out"
            • "Second Mortgage"
            • "Leveled"
            • "Fracture"
            • "The New Sculpture"
            • "Climbing"
            • "Duped"
            • "The Collapse of Pretense" >
              • "The Showoff and the Introvert"
            • "Mergers: 10 Paintings - 20Portraits" >
              • "Wise Ass"
              • "Century" 40" x 30" oil/paper/panel 2017
              • "Back to Square One"
            • "The Grid"
            • "Beauty and the Beast"
            • "Optimism's Promise" 36" x 48" O/P/P 2019
            • "Second Life"
            • "Moment"
            • "Monday"
            • "Landscape"
      • "The Doubt in Belief" >
        • "The Clan"
    • "Anticipation is Greater than Realization" >
      • "Fake"
      • "Deep" 30" x 90" Oil/Paper/Panel 2017/18 >
        • "Encroachment"
        • "5.18.16"
        • "The Rigor of Facade"
        • "Let's Twist Again Like We did Last Summer" >
          • "The Modernists" >
            • "Monsters" 36" x 48" o/p/p 2019
            • "Mixing It Up"
            • "Untitled" (after Richard Hamilton and Robert MCHale)
          • "The Art World"
      • "Just Visiting" >
        • "White on Color" >
          • "10 Moments from the Twentieth Century"
          • "The Long Shot" >
            • "Survival of the Fittest"
          • "Encroachment" >
            • "Battle"
            • "The Idolatry of Longevity"
      • "Philosophy" >
        • "Beauty"
        • "Generic Reconstitution"
        • "Faceoff" >
          • "The Conservator" >
            • "The Loss of Memory: The Inability to Forget 24" x 30" o/p/p 2019
            • "Pathway"
        • "Minimalism's Maximalism" >
          • "Flashback"
          • "Larry's Place"
        • "Lost"
        • "Transcendence" >
          • "Old Time Painting"
        • "Fifty Times the Area"
        • "Lost" >
          • "The Flow" >
            • "Tug of War"
            • "Unreal"
            • "Who's on Top?"
      • "The Conspiracy"
      • "Stay in Tonight"
      • "Asleep at the Wheel"
      • "Lights Out"
      • "Trip"
      • "Queen of the Feminists"
      • "Lost"
      • "Untitled" (after the painting titled "Anticipation is Greater than Realization, 20" x 30", 2013)
      • "Memory"
      • "Anthroland" 48" x 40" Oil/Paper/Panel 1998
      • "Weather System"
      • "Seduced Again"
      • "Flux" 12" x 32" oil/paper/panel 2013
      • "Intersection"
      • "Obsession"
      • "Unreal"