John McNamara
  • "Running" 24" x 30" oil/paper/panel 2013
  • Recent Paintings
  • "Solitude"
  • "Anticipation is Greater than Realization"
    • "Echo"
    • "Fake" >
      • "KINGDOM' >
        • "Real Light" 40" x 48" Oil/Paper/Panel 2001
        • "Safety"
        • "Speed and Compression"
        • "10 Moments from the Twentieth Century"
        • "Futility"
        • "Disease"
        • "Echo"
        • "Lost"
        • "Integrated Polarities"
        • "Encroachment"
        • "Utilitarian Abstraction"
    • "The Gift" 36" x 48" Oil/Paper/Panel 2021
    • "Painters of the Past"
    • "Just Visiting" >
      • "White on Color" >
        • "The Long Shot" >
          • "Survival of the Fittest"
        • "Encroachment" >
          • "Deep" 30" x 90" Oil/Paper/Panel 2017/18 >
            • "Monsters" 36" x 48" o/p/p 2019
            • "5.18.16"
            • "Let's Twist Again Like We did Last Summer" >
              • "The Modernists" >
                • "Mixing It Up"
                • "Untitled" (after Richard Hamilton and Robert MCHale)
              • "Worlds" >
                • "The Rigor of Facade"
                • "Solitude" >
                  • "WoW" 20" x 24" oil/paper/panel 2013 >
                    • "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
                  • "The Suitors" >
                    • 5.10.16 - Landscape >
                      • "Bridges and Plumbing"
                      • "The Man"
                      • "Possibilities" 20" x 30" oil/paper/panel 2014
                    • "Inside Out"
                    • "Untitled" (after the painting titled "Anticipation is Greater than Realization, 20" x 30", 2013)
                    • "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" >
                      • "Philosophy" >
                        • "Beauty"
                        • "Generic Reconstitution"
                        • "The Flow" >
                          • "Tug of War"
                          • "Unreal"
                          • "Who's on Top?"
                        • "Velvet Underground" 30" x 24" Oil/Paper/Panel 2021
                        • "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"
                    • "Monday"
                    • "Landscape"
                • "The Obsession to Feel"
                • "Seduced"
                • "Whittling Down" 36" x 48" O/P/P 2020
                • "The Inextricable Hold" (2nd version) >
                  • "Surveillance"
                • "Breakdown"
                • "Echoes of Remnants"
                • "The Unforeseen and the Inevitable"
                • "Fabrication of an Illusion" 24" x 36" Oil/Paper/Panel 2021
                • "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"
                  • "Empathy"
                • "Tripping"
                • "The Showoff and the Introvert" >
                  • "The Inextricable Hold"
                • "Encounter"
                • "The Doubt in Belief" >
                  • "The Clan"
              • "The Art World"
          • "Battle"
          • "The Idolatry of Longevity"
    • "The Conspiracy"
    • "Stay in Tonight"
    • "Asleep at the Wheel"
    • "Lights Out"
    • "Trip"
    • "Queen of the Feminists"
    • "Lost"
    • "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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  • "Running" 24" x 30" oil/paper/panel 2013
  • Recent Paintings
  • "Solitude"
  • "Anticipation is Greater than Realization"
    • "Echo"
    • "Fake" >
      • "KINGDOM' >
        • "Real Light" 40" x 48" Oil/Paper/Panel 2001
        • "Safety"
        • "Speed and Compression"
        • "10 Moments from the Twentieth Century"
        • "Futility"
        • "Disease"
        • "Echo"
        • "Lost"
        • "Integrated Polarities"
        • "Encroachment"
        • "Utilitarian Abstraction"
    • "The Gift" 36" x 48" Oil/Paper/Panel 2021
    • "Painters of the Past"
    • "Just Visiting" >
      • "White on Color" >
        • "The Long Shot" >
          • "Survival of the Fittest"
        • "Encroachment" >
          • "Deep" 30" x 90" Oil/Paper/Panel 2017/18 >
            • "Monsters" 36" x 48" o/p/p 2019
            • "5.18.16"
            • "Let's Twist Again Like We did Last Summer" >
              • "The Modernists" >
                • "Mixing It Up"
                • "Untitled" (after Richard Hamilton and Robert MCHale)
              • "Worlds" >
                • "The Rigor of Facade"
                • "Solitude" >
                  • "WoW" 20" x 24" oil/paper/panel 2013 >
                    • "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
                  • "The Suitors" >
                    • 5.10.16 - Landscape >
                      • "Bridges and Plumbing"
                      • "The Man"
                      • "Possibilities" 20" x 30" oil/paper/panel 2014
                    • "Inside Out"
                    • "Untitled" (after the painting titled "Anticipation is Greater than Realization, 20" x 30", 2013)
                    • "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" >
                      • "Philosophy" >
                        • "Beauty"
                        • "Generic Reconstitution"
                        • "The Flow" >
                          • "Tug of War"
                          • "Unreal"
                          • "Who's on Top?"
                        • "Velvet Underground" 30" x 24" Oil/Paper/Panel 2021
                        • "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"
                    • "Monday"
                    • "Landscape"
                • "The Obsession to Feel"
                • "Seduced"
                • "Whittling Down" 36" x 48" O/P/P 2020
                • "The Inextricable Hold" (2nd version) >
                  • "Surveillance"
                • "Breakdown"
                • "Echoes of Remnants"
                • "The Unforeseen and the Inevitable"
                • "Fabrication of an Illusion" 24" x 36" Oil/Paper/Panel 2021
                • "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"
                  • "Empathy"
                • "Tripping"
                • "The Showoff and the Introvert" >
                  • "The Inextricable Hold"
                • "Encounter"
                • "The Doubt in Belief" >
                  • "The Clan"
              • "The Art World"
          • "Battle"
          • "The Idolatry of Longevity"
    • "The Conspiracy"
    • "Stay in Tonight"
    • "Asleep at the Wheel"
    • "Lights Out"
    • "Trip"
    • "Queen of the Feminists"
    • "Lost"
    • "Memory"
    • "Anthroland" 48" x 40" Oil/Paper/Panel 1998
    • "Weather System"
    • "Seduced Again"
    • "Flux" 12" x 32" oil/paper/panel 2013
    • "Intersection"
    • "Obsession"
    • "Unreal"