Today is #TwitterFirstFriday on Twitter (@gnavar).
“The Giants”
mixed media on board
18 x 30 in © 1993 Gabriel Navar
#TwitterFirstFriday #art #painting #twitterART #acrylic #artist #twitart #iloveart
Category Archives: Chronology
My paintings from 1989 through the present. Imagery varies from the dark and macabre, to meditative and tranquil, socio-political, whimsical and surreal, pop and emblematic, as well as parodies dealing with techno-mania (as some may say, smart phones have turned us into walking zombies absorbed into our gadgets).
Sunken
“SUNKEN, UNSWOLLEN SUNRISES”
MIXED MEDIA ON WOOD
48 x 48 in © 1992 GABRIEL NAVAR
This painting was created in Oakland and while I was a student at California State University, East Bay (Hayward)… I began by creating a ceramic relief owl motif and worked around it…. below the owl, for instance, there is a pool of forms that represent excrement (crap!!!)… it was a sort of statement about societal bullshit and the sort of spiritual healing and wisdom that needs to occur. Behind the foreground, there is a nightmarish scene of foreboding hills and, at the top of the composition, hooks and bodies….. enjoy
Silent Corner
“BREAKTHROUGH IN THE FACTORY OF THE SILENT CORNER”
ACRYLIC, TEMPERA, WAX & OIL ON CANVAS & WOOD
48 x 48 in © 1992 GABRIEL NAVAR
This early painting is part of my nightmarish, “dreamscape” period where colors, textures, forms and abstract figures collide in a fiery-then-cool dance of chaos and order that exists in the painterly world of the imagination.
Gabriel Navar
The Seer
“THE SEER”
ACRYLIC, PENCILS, WAX & OIL ON CANVAS & WOOD
18 x 14 in © 1992 GABRIEL NAVAR
This is an early “dreamscape” painting created in 1992 and purchased by great friends of mine. Unfortunately, about two years later or so, my friends’ house burned (in a big fire in Inverness, CA) along with “The Seer” and other paintings they had collected from me and other artists. The painting is long gone but continues to exist in the cyber world. My wife has suggested for me to do an “homage” to it just as I have done so with the works of other artists.
Gabriel Navar
Bautizmo Azul
“BLUE BAPTISM”
MIXED MEDIA ON PAPER
25 x 19 in © 1997 GABRIEL NAVAR
A painting from 1997, a time when I was creating artwork that was meditative.
In Bliss
“IN BLISS”
MIXED MEDIA ON CANVAS
48 x 46 in © 1996 GABRIEL NAVAR
Another early painting from 1996. It features a female figure from three different perspectives, the figures overlapping one another – all in a state of bliss and “thankfulness”, as well as hope. The painting is a sort of ode to the possibilities of “wishes coming true”.
Awakening
“CRIMSON AWAKENING”
MIXED MEDIA ON CANVAS
66 x 42 in © 1995 GABRIEL NAVAR
The main person in this painting, Mark, was a student of mine back in the ’90s when I worked with special education students, especially autism. Mark enjoyed twirling things with his hands, mostly strings and leaves. He also enjoyed puzzles. For the painting, I decided to include actual leaves onto the canvas. I also decided to make the overall composition puzzle-like, with six missing pieces that form a sort of smiling face. Lastly, in my surrealist tendencies, I included a double image of an older man (Mark’s father) confronting himself while a suspended outstretched figure hangs between them. I replaced the head of the suspended figure with a heart. Mark’s father (Bill) had bypass surgery soon after I created the painting.
Curiosity
“CURIOSITY, SHELTERED, IS IN REIGN…”
MIXED MEDIA ON BOARD
19 x 25 in © 1993 GABRIEL NAVAR
Another early painting that explores my interest in the “carnivalesque” as well as the whimsical explorations about dream-scape perspective. Enjoy.
Gabriel Navar
Hands of the Sea and Sky
“GABRIEL SKINNED FOR THE HANDS OF THE SEA AND SKY”
MIXED MEDIA ON BOARD
29 x 54 in © 1992 GABRIEL NAVAR
I had so much fun with this painting. It is one of my early favorites. I enjoyed doing all of the overlapping imagery, textures, and glazing. Furthermore, I had fun with creating a visually busy interaction of forms, complementary colors and metaphorical turbulence. Oh, by the way, I used fluorescent and phosphorescent paints…. therefore, the painting (like many others I have created over the years) glows in the dark!
Pull Me Out
“PULL ME OUT”
ACRYLIC ON BOARD
© 1990 GABRIEL NAVAR
This early painting is also part of the home made video featuring The Cure’s “Close To Me” . The background is a section of a graveyard, as the name of the painting suggests, with zombie-like creatures wanting to come out from the graves. In the background, to the left there are figures being “cattled” into a corporate building.
Gabriel Navar 