Gene Underwood

Painter

Every painting I make is a journal entry, a fleck of my life. But I’ve transmuted them into arrangements of colors and shapes, surprisingly composed, to engage you.

I’m one of those lifelong student types. I read as widely as I can. I’m a popular culture vulture. Art museums are a daily vitamin to me. I always wanted to learn how to paint, and I’ve looked at so much great art in museums and galleries that it is quite humbling to even attempt to add to what already exists. But everyone has their own perspective on the world, their own angle, and I have mine, and I want to share it with people. Years ago, when I told a friend I was learning to paint, he said, “No, flip it around. Paint to learn.” That was a gift that has opened a whole new way of life for me.

So all these two-dimensional illusions represent objects in my world that I choose to share with you. I want to make you smile or think. The novelist Henry James said, “Be one on whom nothing is lost.” That’s who I want to be!  That’s why I paint still lifes, to see what I’m looking at.