I went to a few openings tonight - maybe 4 or 5 in the same building - the show I did want to see was Doug Safranek at the ACA Gallery in Chelsea.

All the work at the ACA Gallery was in Egg Tempera - and I have to say, Doug Safranek’s paintings were fantastic.  I spoke briefly with the artist.  For one thing, his show was well attended; many people came, many friends of his, but also people like me who know nothing about Doug Safranek.

I spent about 30-40 minutes looking at the entire collection - there was so much detail in each painting - l don’t know that it’s possible to get any more detail in a painting than what Doug Safranek puts in …it must take him close to a year to do one painting - and he does, maybe, 3 or 4 a year, similar to what Joe Coleman puts out.

There’s so much detail - you can get lost in it - and yet - what strikes me is the feeling of what these images remind me of.  I grew up in NYC, but even if you did not grow up here …the images, the details work on your mind, your emotion.

The reason these paintings work for me is the emotion behind them - perhaps less detail might have worked just as well or even better for me- and I did not care for the framing - I don’t know what would work better - I just don’t like the way most of the paintings are framed.

 

At this level, a photo would have done just as well - if it was just about detail. Again, the reason the paintings work for me - it’s the feelings he put in - while he worked on the details - the love of the craft, the love of the image - that’s what I get out Doug Safranek’s work.

I tried to understand why someone would spend this long on one painting.  I can understand Joe Coleman doing it - because he’s painting his ideas and memories - but why paint something go to such detail when a photo would do just as well?

But then I look at each detail and the feelings that this artist felt, unfolds to me - and I’m totally fine - it’s great work. 

And then I looked at some of the other work in the gallery that was not his and I saw that less detail would have worked just as well.  The Egg Tempera technique is hard enough - takes very long time and a lot of extra effort to produce these kinds of results.  In 100 years, these paintings won’t even look like they aged, Egg Tempera holds up very well over time.

So, I’d suggest going to see Doug Safranek at the ACA Gallery. 

I can’t say that if I owned a Safranek ….I’d look at it over and over …that’s usually what I look for in work I think is good.  I think I looked at each of the paintings for a couple of minutes each - and I found detail after detail facinating…but I don’t know how his work holds up over time - would I still like it as much if it was handing on my wall for a month or two.  I’m not sure.   I think he could have dropped much of the ultra detailing he seems to delight in and still held everyone’s interest - but that’s just my opinion.