George Van Hook Paints Cazenovia

An American Impressionist internationally recognized artist George Van Hook painted for two weeks in Cazenovia, NY in August 2009.

George Van Hook spent August 11-14th in Cazenovia New York to paint “en plein air”.  This is a great honor for Central New York, Cazenovia and fellow Gallery CNY artists, as internationally acclaimed George Van Hook is making history by capturing our area and time with his brush. 

Carlton Manzano and Nicora Gangi joined Van Hook to paint during his visit. Artwork of each of the artists will be available through The Gallery of CNY.  Please call or email for photos of work or stop by to see as soon as Friday, August 28, 2009.

The Gallery of CNY strongly believes that each of these artists, all committed full-time to their art, is making a mark in history.  It’s our generation’s responsibility to support these artists as previous generations have done before us from the European Old Masters to the Great American Turn of the 19th Century Artists.  

More about Internationally Recognized artist:

American Born, 1954 - George Van Hook’s paintings have been exhibited for over 35 years throughout the United States, Europe and recently in China and Japan. Van Hook’s painterly style follows in the tradition of the impressionists. Inspired by both a love of nature fostered by long hours painting “en plein air,” Van Hook paints with gusto and passion, bringing a freshness and immediacy to the rural scenes where he lives in upstate New York. His landscape paintings of the Central New York rolling hills capture the changing light that only a master’s touch can create. His fly fishing paintings painted on location on well-known trout streams are sought after in this country and in Italy.

Van Hook grew up in the Philadelphia area where he spent a great deal of time studying the masters at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and immersing himself in the world-renowned Bucks County Impressionist and the Brandywine art traditions from the early 20th century. Van Hook was educated at Oberlin College in Ohio, and later received his Bachelors of Art at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California in 1977. While in California, Van Hook was drawn to the works of the late 19th and early 20th century California Impressionists and won over a dozen awards and prizes. This interest naturally led him to Europe where he studied painting in Italy and France, absorbing the works of the old masters from his daily visits to the Louvre. Upon his return to the U.S., George quickly established his reputation as an award winning artist, garnering Outstanding Young Man of America Award in 1983, and becoming a Finalist in Portraiture for The Artist’s Magazine Annual Art Competition in 1999. In 2000, he was awarded the Grand Award at the Grand Exhibition in Akron, Ohio.

A noted figurative artist, George’s paintings hark back to the works of William Merritt Chase and were the subject of an article “Painting Figures in Interiors and Landscapes” in American Artist Magazine, written by M. Stephen Doherty in December, 2001. Like Chase, Van Hook paints people engaged in an outdoor activity or pensively posed in a sunlit interior. Doherty writes, “George Van Hook has updated that theme with depictions of young women in garden settings who seem lost in thought or amused by children at play; or outfitted men casting their lines in a trout stream. His paintings display the Impressionist interest in color, light, and rich paint, yet the figures and settings are decidedly contemporary.”

George Van Hook’s paintings have been exhibited in galleries in California, Washington, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Jersey and New York. His work has been exhibited widely in the United States including exhibitions at Grants Pass Museum of Art in Oregon and The American Museum of Fly Fishing in Vermont. George also frequently exhibits his work at the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester, Vermont. In France his work has been shown at Atelier des peintures de l’abbaye and Le Mairie. In Japan, Van Hook had a solo exhibition of over 70 paintings at Gallery Enatsu in Hiroshima. In 2004 and 2006, George van Hook was invited by the Italian Museum of Fly Fishing and the Archives of Rome to an inclusive three week stay on their behalf to paint the Italian countryside.

“The experience of seeing is the most important part of the process….My aim is to translate that experience onto the canvas. My eyes are so much better at that than the lens of the camera….” “I feel a kinship and continuity with the entire flow of Western painting since the Renaissance….Having a sense of the larger flow and importance of Western art makes it easier to remain unaffected by the vagaries of quickly passing art fads…"   - George Van Hook

“Collectors tell me they like my passion for painting. I am visually interacting with the objective world, but I go beyond that to bring my own sense of passion and commitment to the work. I paint everyday and hope to do so until the end.”   - George Van Hook

Artist’s Statement: “The experience of seeing is the most important part of the process…. My aim is to translate that experience onto the canvas. My eyes are so much better at that than the lens of the camera….” “I feel a kinship and continuity with the entire flow of Western painting since the Renaissance…. Having a sense of the larger flow and importance of Western art makes it easier to remain unaffected by the vagaries of quickly passing art fads…"

Artist Biography:  (American artist, born 1954-) George Van Hook was raised in Pennsylvania, lived and worked as an artist in the Bay Area of California, then returned to the east coast to raise his family in Central New York and now resides northeast of Albany. He attended Oberlin College and earned his B.A. in Art at Humboldt State University. Van Hook was featured in a cover article for American Artist Magazine in March of 1989 and again in December 2001.

As a young artist, Van Hook was interested in the early 20th century California Impressionists, as well as with artists such as Thomas Eakins, John Singer Sargent, and Andrew Wyeth. An artist for nearly his entire life, George Van Hook follows in the traditions of J. Alden Weir and William Merritt Chase with his integration of form, light, and color, to create rich, textured landscapes. As a plein air painter, Van Hook always paints in nature, yet he intentionally chooses his locations based on the structures of the site. His paintings are thus deliberately balanced in forms and light, carefully plotted without altering the sovereignty of nature. Van Hook’s landscapes focus on the process of seeing, as one’s sight captures what a camera can miss—visions, sensations, and experiences. Depicting familiar northeast locations, Van Hook translates the impressionist style to a contemporary subject, as he builds lights on darks with confident strokes.

Van Hook captures the very essence of the beautifully variant CNY landscape. From fly fishermen to seasonal farmscapes, he is able to bring the richness of the CNY area to its height. When not working out-of-doors, Van Hook paints still lifes in the impressionistic tradition. Always exploring form, color, and culture in these pieces, he bringing elements from all of his experiences to the canvas. Van Hook produces wonderful figurative works; a girl reading in the garden or a woman preparing to dress - accomplished scenes that speak to the innocence and elegance of the most delicate subject an artist faces. From these figurative works, Van Hook has been commissioned for portraiture by affluent families as well as accepting commission for mural sized hunting and sporting paintings.  Van Hook’s work has been exhibited widely in galleries throughout the United States, as well as in Europe and Japan.

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