Parish Gallery: Friday, 22 October 2021

After MANY months staying dark, the Parish Gallery is reopening with an exhibit of figurative drawings by Douglas Simes.  The exhibit will be available for viewing October 19 through December 18, and there will be a reception Friday, October 22, from 6 to 8 p.m.  

 From Douglas: I am a draftsman.  My project is the figure and portrait.

My life in the arts includes work in architecture and professional acting, disciplines that inform my drawing practice in cogent ways.  My inner architect trusts in anatomy as a fundamental generator of bodily form and keeps vigil over issues of perspective and compositional design.  The actor in me seeks to establish a rapport with my subject that reveals a connection both intimate and palpable.  

I work in graphite, ink pen, sanguine pencil and black chalk.  My drawing technique references Renaissance and Baroque masters; it is grounded in the revelation of gesture, structure and topology.  I strive for precision, both in the details of form and psychological expression.

When COVID precluded life drawing, I embarked on a series of “memory” drawings, expanding and reimagining images from family snapshots taken in 50’s and 60’s.  This acutely personal expedition recently explored the face of my mother captured in a moment of midlife depression.  

Whether from life or a photographic source, the act of drawing is an act of engagement.

 Parish Gallery in Trinity Episcopal Church

600 N. Euclid

at the corner of Euclid and Washington in the Central West End