Still, Waiting (Contemporary Abstract Figure Painting), 2022

G. Campbell Lyman  

Artist's statement:

"Though I am an abstract painter by tradition, I painted this somewhat figurative painting to express the feeling I have developed over the past couple of years (related to Covid in particular). I don't see it as a bleak or depressing painting. "This too shall end," and perhaps has already begun to. But I find myself still anticipating some notable change - as though I am this entombed figure in a sort of holding state, and above ground is a more vital existence that is to return (here, an aqueduct, symbolizing both water and the structure of Western culture that underpins my daily existence, particularly as it relates to art). I believe many others feel this way - in some sense isolated or blocked off from normality, and waiting. Again, I am quite optimistic, and this painting merely records the feeling I think many of us have had over the past couple of years, not just the negative aspect, but also the sense of light at the end of the tunnel (or to mix metaphors: the life that awaits us back above ground).

(On a previous series by the artist): “These paintings are a refreshing departure from the current abstract art world’s seemingly endless parade of fields of color with scribbles providing form, a style that is easily mimicked and has become a sort of “safe,” accessible go-to. There are confident decisions in these paintings appearing as commitments of strongly delineated forms and unexpected collisions of color that give the work a visceral, confident and playful soul, increasingly missing from contemporary expressionist abstraction. They are the paintings of a real painter rather than a decorative artist.”

ArtSeen, 2018