Gregory D. Stocks

Greg Stocks was born in Lubbock, Texas in 1963 into a military family. The third of four children, he lived in Texas, California and Idaho by the age of 8, when his father, an Air Force fighter pilot, was killed in a plane crash. His family eventually settled in Idaho to be near the rest of the family.

Some of Greg’s earliest memories are of drawings of cars and motorcycles by his older brother. He began doing his own drawings of hot rods and motorcycles as well as copying his favorite cartoon characters. He developed a love of drawing and soon discovered an affinity for music…studying piano, drums and guitar. His family was very supportive of these pursuits and throughout high school he immersed himself in music and art. His senior year he contributed illustrations for the yearbook and won the school’s Memorial Jazz Music Award.

In 1981, Greg moved to Utah to attend Utah State University With no declared major he enrolled in a basic design course for non-art majors. The professor, however, seeing his natural abilities, encouraged Greg to take more art classes. The next quarter found him enrolled in the foundation program in the art department at the University of Utah. Upon graduation, he relocated back to Utah State University to study illustration. Two years later, Greg graduated with a degree in commercial art, and, by this time, having a wife and baby, employment was crucial. For the next several years, he had various jobs from a technician in a computer manufacturing company to working in a hardware store…from being a drummer in a bar band to working as a designer in the T-shirt industry. Yet all through this time he kept drawing and painting, taking a sketchbook with him everywhere. He drew and painted his family and friends, models, landscapes; he kept his drawing table set up wherever possible. He studied artists such as Sorolla, Sargent, Whistler and Twachtman as well as contemporary artists: Richard Schmid, Michael Workman and Skip Liepke. In 1998 the owner of a gallery offered to give him a show, and the rest is history. In a light, fast pace he lays down bold, flat-edged brushstrokes using rich earth tones. His style is stark, with a clean, contemporary feel. And his scenes are a combination of memories and imagination…intended to relate not so much a place as a place in one’s heart and emotions. In Greg’s case, canvasses that invoke a sense of strength mixed with sweet melancholy.

His work has been shown and collected in galleries throughout the West and Southwest. He’s won numerous awards and competitions. And even though his creativity has found its strongest force in his artwork, he likens the process to music. “My work is an effort to create images that serve as emotional detours from the noise and confusion of the surrounding world. I find the process of painting to be similar to that of writing a song. There is a basic structure or rhythm to the work. The melody comes into play in the form of color, brushwork and the expressive possibilities of process.”

 

Carmel Galleries:
2 Gallery locations on San Carlos btwn 5th & 6th
and 1 Gallery on 6th btwn San Carlos & Dolores
Phone East:831-626-9100
Phone West:831-626-7300
Toll Free:888-278-0040
Fax:831-626-9200

Palm Desert Gallery:
73-375 El Paseo, Suite A
Palm Desert, CA 92260
Phone: 760-674-8989

Website:http://www.Jones-Terwilliger-Galleries.com