Landscape Series 6 (SOLD)
5” x 22”
Vine Charcoal On Paper (Lenox 100)
Landscape Series 2, 18" x 12", Charcoal On Paper
WONDER (50” range) - Humankind’s ongoing continuum of curiosity is at the core of these narratives. Drawn pictures with titles such as Wonder, Quest and Search describe the types of universal pursuits that seem central to all people.
FLOURISH (45” range) - Similar to celebrative centerpieces, these images announce their singularity with a stately presence. Each heroic image proudly displays itself - in celebration of itself. At times a subtext of minimal characters also appears, providing subtle identifiers.
DETAIL (close-ups) – Viewing these images at close range is critical in order to experience the gritty handmade rubbed surfaces, charcoal line densities, and imbued presences. These details highlight the miniscule specific decisions that contribute to the overall work of art.
ENSEMBLES (large walls) – Minor but multiple variations based on simple shapes assemble together to form large collections. Each small drawing shares wall space with its numerous, almost identical partners; thus the individual becomes part of the larger population.
ORIGINS (50” - 70” range) – Diagrammatic images interpret our life sources and history. Titles such as Beginnings, Lesson and Beast describe aspects of humanity and time.
HARVEST (40” Range) – Fruits, lively plants, water, air and light are brought together in celebration of our bountiful planet.
PROCESS & STYLE
The fast, visual release of the confidant lines describes each form crisply, bluntly and without interference, yet the picture’s narrative is revealed slowly and remains timeless, allowing the viewer to linger and ponder.
The graphic images can look cartoonish, but are created with a seriousness and formality.
My fingertips coat the paper gray first, and then I draw loosely and freely, searching out my characters. Once found, decisive black lines are added as accurately as possible, so that there is no mistaking what kind of image was intended.
In the end, even the large drawings are framed under glass as a way to further enhance the formality.
TOWARDS PERFECTION
Drawing with vine charcoal allows me great freedom to search for significant forms. The charcoal’s erasing capacity enables me to keep the drawing loose, open and flexible for several weeks into the making of a piece: this is important as I make innumerable changes while tracking down the specific subject and images of each particular drawing.
Once satisfied with the armature or underlying information, I then crave a kind of geometric coding of the image that has been developing. It’s at this end point only that I use rulers and compasses, replacing one type of drawing (malleable) with another type of drawing (precise). The one-quarter inch sticks of charcoal never change, but are asked to now perform in a much more rigid fashion. This is when the process becomes most exciting. Depending on the complexity of each piece, the number of decisions, big, small, or even miniscule are staggering. It’s an exciting balancing act of control until perfection is achieved.
Landscape Series 4 (Detail), 18" x 12", Charcoal On Paper
SHORT STATEMENT
Universal signs and symbols are direct and release information quickly. In my own drawing language, I incorporate a similarly authoritative, forceful sense of form dependent on line. Utilizing a gray tonal palette further helps to codify the drawings without interference.
The larger drawings are open-ended narratives speaking about humankind, while the smaller works focus on pure states of form.
Despite the rigors of the graphic style, there is always a warm feeling of being handmade and heartfelt.
Presence 1 - Centerpiece Series, 49" x 36", Charcoal On Paper
Song #2 - Centerpiece Series, 49" x 35", Charcoal On Paper
Known for stylized, precise, graphic imagery, Howie Lee Weiss’s artworks have been reviewed in such publications as Art in America, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Baltimore Sun.
Weiss’s iconic drawings have been exhibited in galleries in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington, DC. His artwork has also appeared in venues throughout Italy. In Japan, Weiss lectured with the Keisho Art Association in conjunction with an exhibit that featured his extensive, free-style sketchbook practice.
In Baltimore, Howie Lee Weiss is currently affiliated with Goya Contemporary Gallery. Previously, his work was featured at the C. Grimaldis Gallery.
A professor who has influenced multitudes of students, Weiss oversees all aspects of the Senior Thesis Program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), and coordinates studio programming and the Artist-at-Noon Lecture Series. Twice he has received the Trustee’s Award for Excellence in Teaching at MICA. He also co-directs the MICA Summer Intensive Abroad program in Italy.
At Princeton University and the AICA New York Studio Program, Weiss served as Visiting Professor. As a speaker and critic Weiss has visited several schools, including Vassar, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, University of Pennsylvania, Moore College of Art, University of Connecticut and the Corcoran College of Art.
In addition to a focused and disciplined studio life, Weiss swims regularly, attends classical piano and opera concerts, and is a collector of vintage graphics in the form of posters and coffee tins.
A Pennsylvania native who began to draw at the age of five, Howie Lee Weiss was raised in a working-class, northeastern coal-mining town in proximity to the sophisticated, elegant vacation resorts of the Pocono Mountains. Mr. Weiss earned his MFA from Yale University School of Art & Architecture and his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).
“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.
“I believe artists must make space for pleasure in painting, both in the act of painting and in the pleasure of viewing it.”
-Lauren Whearty
In her first solo exhibition with Gross McCleaf Gallery, titled Painter’s Table, Lauren Whearty celebrates cheerful color and playful patterns in a contemporary take on the artistic tradition of still life painting. With a keen eye for possibilities within this genre, Whearty embraces a feminist perspective, using everyday objects as building blocks to create her own distinctive universe. Each item she incorporates becomes a referential exploration of art history and the process of image creation, adding depth and meaning to her work.
In our home, a child’s smile lives over the entrance door. It’s an early canvas painted by Howie Lee Weiss (HLW), unusual for him because most of his work is charcoal on paper. Also unusual is that, while it’s a powerful image, it’s not about the incredibly exacting “perfection” he is going for these days.
More often than not the work’s primary colors hang cockeyed in our living room. I straighten the picture periodically, but for over thirty years it’s been inclined to tilt. I could, of course, secure the painting with a second picture hanger, but I like both its innocent off-centeredness and its response to peoples’ comings and goings. Also, it mimics its image’s quirky quiddity and reflects who created this happy, abstracted portrait.
Elizabeth Johnson: In the “Style, Process, Perfection” part of your website, you describe beginning a charcoal drawing: "My fingertips coat the paper gray first, and then I draw loosely and freely, searching out my characters. Once found, decisive black lines are added as accurately as possible so that there is no mistaking what kind of image was intended.” Few contemporary artists work exclusively with charcoal. Besides its workability, why do you gravitate to it? Do the traces of previous attempts help you find your subject? Or are you always starting over with a blank slate after erasing?
Howie Lee Weiss: The image grows and develops. I may like a tiny bit and build around that, or I may continue to wipe away the sketch marks until the images that are necessary gradually appear...
“I want to work directly with the subject as much as possible. Most of my painting sites are familiar to me. My goal is to keep finding new subjects to paint, in the city and elsewhere, with a beautiful sense of light and some bit of life.”
- Larry Francis
Gross McCleaf Gallery is pleased to feature a solo exhibition by Larry Francis, a much-beloved painter of the Philadelphia regional scene. Francis is a thirty-year veteran of the Gross McCleaf roster and has consistently painted engaging, everyday scenes of identifiable neighborhood locales. You Are Here is another achievement in his pursuit, featuring over twenty new landscape and cityscape paintings of sites mostly within fifty miles of the Schuylkill.
