Local artist George Glenn emerges from retirement with experimental new show

Eleven years ago painter George Glenn moved to Christopher Lake, bought a studio and started experimenting.

“I’m not a painter that develops a certain kind of perfection and technique, but I am a painter that loves to play,” he said.

Glenn retired in 2013 and said he now has the freedom to spend as much time as he likes in the studio working with new materials. He has begun to move away from the oil painting he is known for and started working in acrylics and mixed media.

“I can throw anything at the acrylics and it’ll stick… Stuff that I wouldn’t do with oils, I can do with this,” he said.

“I was experimenting a lot, so it led to work that was different than the mainstream work that I’ve done for many years and it just kind of changed my way of thinking and changed my direction.”

His newer works demonstrate increased depth and texture, making use of wood, paper and hardened paint repurposed from his palette. He also started working with tar gel, a shiny, clear resin.

The results of the past seven years of work are collected in Glenn’s latest exhibition, Redefinition. The show will run at the Mann Art Gallery (MAG) from May 26 to Aug. 19, with an opening reception on May 26. This is the first time Glenn has seen his new pieces displayed together in a gallery space.

For more on this story, please read the Prince Albert Daily Herald¹s subscription-based print or e-editions.

 

Got to go:

What? Opening reception: Redefinition by George Glenn

Where? Mann Art Gallery

When? Friday, May 26 at 7 p.m.

Admission? Free