FALLBROOK, Calif., Sept. 16, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The colors, materials and inspiration for much of the world's fine artwork comes from the world around us. Whether it's clay in ceramics, pigments in oils or silica used to form glass, nature has an elemental influence on creativity and the final artistic product.
George Comer, an award-winning artist from Lake Elsinore, Calif., has taken this fundamental relationship between the earth and art to a new level.
He incorporates much of what the earth has to offer in his paintings to create abstract images that are rich in texture and ironically look a lot like what this planet looks like from outer space.
He paints in oils, acrylics and enamel but uses materials such as mica, sand, glass and coffee grounds to build a heavily textured mixed-media abstract painting with many layers.
"I'll use just about anything that will stick," even the byproduct of a copper smelting process, said the 46 year-old artist.
It's all about texture and flow for Comer. "I think about land and water and where they meet," he explains. "I also try to capture the energy I observe in nature."
Comer is among nearly two dozen artists who are participating in the Art of the Earth show at the Fallbrook Art Center in Fallbrook, Calif. from Sept. 21 to Oct. 12. The show is first-time collaboration between the Fallbrook Art Center and the Fallbrook Gem & Mineral Society, a half-century- old organization that keeps the region's rock hound and mining traditions alive.
"We are pleased to be able to team up with the Gem & Mineral Society for this show," said Mary Perhacs, executive director of the Fallbrook Art Center, a division of the Fallbrook Center for the Arts. "Nature's diversity is clearly evident in the art presented by 21 artists from across Southern California, who have created art from a broad range of materials formed from the earth - clay, stone, minerals, and gems - jewelry, sculpture, functional ware, paintings, fossils, and mineral specimens."
The Art of the Earth show at the Fallbrook Art Center is open Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m. to 4.p.m. and Sun. noon-3 p.m. The center is located at 103 S. Main in Fallbrook, Calif., a rural community about 40 miles north of San Diego that recently was selected as one of the top 27 art towns in California by art critic and author John Villani.