Take a Ride
Amery artist pairs bicycles with landscapes in a unique show at the EC library
There’s nothing quite like taking a bike ride through rural fields and rolling hills. The open air gives you a sense of freedom and inspiration that you can’t get while walking or buzzing by in a car. Amery-based artist Gregg Rochester’s upcoming exhibit at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library – Le Tour d’Art – in Eau Claire gives a new perspective on that inspired experience, pairing painted bicycles with his vast, colorful landscapes.
Rochester – who has a history of painting alternate canvasses, including clothing – says the mainstay of his art business is painting landscapes, and he had the idea of showing the joyful perspective of a bicyclist passing through the landscapes. He also thought it sounded fun to paint a few large, colorful abstracts and that’s where Le Tour d’Art got its footing.
“I’ve always been drawn to the land, its shapes, curves, and the emotional response I feel toward it,” Rochester said. “I enjoy the grandeur of long vistas as well as close-up perspectives of things like grasses. My paintings are my mind interpreting what I see, enhancing it, dramatizing it, playing with it, and sometimes completely creating it.”
Rochester works as an artist full time and has found some success. Le Tour d’Art has been shown around the country and will be headed to Europe soon and Rochester has also displayed other gallery work around the country. He’s been dubbed a featured artist by the National Endowment for the Arts and was named the Wisconsin Artist of the Year by Minneapolis arts publication TOSCA.
It’s easy to see how – Rochester’s landscapes are broad and colorful, but hold a certain abstract form that allows the viewer to add his or her own interpretation to each piece. Unlike a precise or realist view of a field or grove of trees, Rochester’s geometric representations give a certain pull to the paintings and make you linger, taking in the greater picture as a whole.
The bikes that sit as part of the show prove interesting as well. Rochester realized that you can’t see both sides of a bike at once, so he can take each side separately which has led to some interesting themes – such as one work which shows night on one side and day on the other.
Rochester enjoys working on bicycles and has continued beyond Le Tour d’Art, working on bikes for clients around the world. The bikes are meant to be hung on the wall and – of course – given their two sides they can be switched up at any time.
But, while you have it off the wall to turn it around, why don’t you give it a ride into the country?
Le Tour d’Art opens Nov. 29 and runs until Dec. 20 at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, 400 Eau Claire St. A reception will be held Dec. 12, 5-8pm.
