Album Series Paintings

For several years, I concentrated on paintings inspired by vintage photographs. The first paintings (2004) in this series were based on photographs of my husband's family – his grandmother (a poet), my sisters and my parents – that I have loved ever since encountering them several decades ago. Most of the photographs date from around 1910.

I found myself strangely moved by these images of people, now gone, who were so youthful and full of life at the time the photos were taken. Lives, frozen for a moment and preserved. Except for the period clothing, they could be any of us, me, my husband, my children. They were as alive then as we are now. The feeling of empathy is almost impossible to explain, and I began to wonder if I could communicate it wordlessly, in paintings – bring these people back to life, just enough...

From that original series I moved on to explore the magic of vintage photographs from various sources: friends' collections from their attics, as well as historic photos from various sources. Those that attract me seem to suggest an age, a time – they feel iconographic to me in some way.

Color photos do not really interest me. They simply don't have the same atmosphere or allow me the same freedom. Although I began working primarily in warm, sepia tones, closer to the originals, I have gradually added more and more color. The degree and the nature of the color are suggested by the era and the photograph itself.

Sometimes they seem to talk to me.

Works asterisked may be purchased from me directly; the remaining available paintings may be purchased by contacting Gail Pierson and may be viewed at the Gail Pierson Gallery in Cape May, NJ. The medium for all is oil on panel; no framing is necessary.