Poppies And Pastry Box (SOLD)
16" x 20"
Oil On Panel
Saltbush, October (SOLD)
24" x 32"
Oil On Panel
“In Peony Elegy, from the very beginning, I was in a nostalgic mood, aware of past times, missing friends: this feeling increased as the painting progressed. All still lifes have an undercurrent of the temporary nature of things.”
-Frank Trefny
Zanesville Bouquet, 32" x 24", Oil On Panel
Trefny’s passion lies in capturing the beauty of life’s ephemeral moments. Flowers, fruit, shells and tapestries are arranged alongside elegant dishware, bottles and vases in his colorful oil paintings. Each element carries its own unique story. Trefny’s titles sometimes provide additional context by specifying the different types of ceramic pieces, whether vintage or collected from non-Western cultures. The surfaces of his vases and dishes glimmer with metallic and iridescent ceramic glazes, retaining their exquisite design through time. In contrast, the flowers and fruit have presumably browned and been discarded, illustrating the fleeting nature of their beauty - an enduring theme in the still-life genre, often referred to as Nature Morta (dead nature).
While the still-life genre inherently reminds us of mortality, Trefny’s work finds levity as well. At times, he anthropomorphizes his objects during the selection and painting process. A small vase may blush with a pink glow, while a decorative box seems to beckon, “paint me!”, and he readily obliges. His compositions convey the evolving relationship between Trefny and his subjects. Vases peek into the paintings from the edges, eager to become part of the scene. In Marble Table With Conch And Pears, the mouth of the vase mirrors its friend, the conch, with both displaying crimped, wavy edges. These nuanced narrative interactions are subtle but rich, adding beauty and mystery to the serene stillness of each scene.
Peony Elegy, 32" x 24", Oil On Panel
Frank Trefny was born in Greenwich, Connecticut in 1948. He has lived in Newark, Delaware since 1983. He received his B.F.A. from Syracuse University in 1970 and his M. F. A. in 1974 from the Hoffberger School of Painting at the Maryland Institute, College of Art. He also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1968. He has had 10 solo shows at the Steven Scott Gallery in Baltimore since its opening in 1988, most recently in 2016, and has been included in many group shows there. He has had 6 solo shows at the Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia, most recently in 2019 and has been included in many group shows there. He has had solo shows at the Bruce R. Lewin Gallery in New York, the Jerald Melberg Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina and the Coplan Gallery in Boca Raton, Florida among others. His work has been featured at exhibitions at the Delaware Art Museum, the Noyes Museum in New Jersey, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and The Woodmere Art Museum, both in Philadelphia, as well as other museum venues. Trefny was the cover artist and the subject of a feature article in American Artist Magazine in December 1987 and again in 2009. He was also selected as the cover artist for Reader’s Digest in April 1995. His work has been reviewed in Art in America by critic Gerrit Henry and is represented in numerous major corporate and private collections including that of President Joseph and First Lady Jill Biden.
Copper Top Table With Basin, Bottle, And Screen, 24" x 32", Oil On Panel
“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”
– Henry David Thoreau
Gross McCleaf Gallery invites you to experience the magic of summer with a group exhibition titled Summer Playlist. Curated like a finely tuned mixtape, this vibrant selection of works explores seasonal themes of celebration, relaxation, and engagement with nature.
Elizabeth Johnson: Jeffrey Carr said of your work: "Art doesn't have to confound beauty, or fight with it, or compete with its naturally occurring presence. Beauty can be left as is." Does this ring true to you? If so, how do you find your groove that allows technique to reflect rather than overpower or undermine found beauty?
Frank Trefny: Yes, I agree with Jeff’s statement. But while everyone may share some concepts of beauty, it is subjective. One thing that makes something beautiful to me is that it looks paintable. That doesn’t mean necessarily that it looks easy to paint, but that it seems to call forth a painterly response. That feeling makes it “beautiful” in my mind. Ivan Albright saw the ugly in everything and made “beautiful” interesting paintings. I, on the other hand, often favor rather traditional beautiful subjects because they inspire me. I never find them boring...
“To me, a field is always shifting, evolving, changing. It is a complex ecosystem. I try to make sense of it, search for patterns to bring out objects, frame them with space that surrounds them. It becomes a meditative state that is romantic at its core. I am searching for the relationship between humans and their always-changing environment.”
-Douglas Martenson
In Resilience, Douglas Martenson delivers a captivating new body of landscape paintings that, while exuding beauty, challenge viewers to contemplate the fragility of our sensitive ecosystems.
“I have a longing for a certain beauty that’s hard to describe, but it’s usually associated with summer colors. My desire for this summertime feeling seems inexhaustible, and though I’ve been trying for many years, I don’t feel like I am ever really satisfied.”
- Kurt Moyer
For over a decade, Kurt Moyer’s work has combined his love of nature with his reverence for art history. Born in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Moyer spent much of his youth exploring the Barnes Collection in Merion, Pennsylvania. Moyer now resides in rural New York near Rochester where he spends his time plein air painting from the beginning of spring until late fall. These passions converge in Moyer’s new abstract paintings on view at Gross McCleaf...
