About The Artist (Brad Gates)
Hi! I’m Brad Gates. I’m a self taught artist living in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. Stylistically, I suppose I’d categorize my work as modern impressionism, if that’s a thing. I tend to use similar brush strokes and colorization of traditional impressionists, but many of my pieces are of modern subjects (like cars instead of lilypads). My style is a bit van Gogh’s linework, a touch of Seurat’s pointalistic brush strokes, and a heaping of my son’s finger painting technique!
The majority of my pieces are based on photographs taken by my wife (Alison), myself, or other professional photographers who have generously allowed me to use their images. Because I seem to always be attached to a device, and always desiring to draw, my pieces generally start as digital art that is created on my tablet or laptop – ranging from simple sketches to full blown digital paintings. The digital images are then printed and decoupaged on to a thin sheet of plywood. Using multiple layers of acrylic paint, I then hand paint each piece, focusing particularly on color, texture, and line. For further texture and color enhancement, each painting is glazed with gel medium.
All original pieces are framed in rustic, often reclaimed, frames that I hand make in our workshop. Although not all frames are made with reclaimed wood, all are antiqued by me.
Thank you for looking at my art and for any purchases you may make.
Brad Gates
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