Colors ebb and flow in former doctor's art exhibit
An artist who retired as a medical doctor to practice art in his studio in Norman for the past two decades has a show at Objets Trouves gallery, 6504 N Western Ave.
The artist is James Cobb, who said he prefers painting from life — either still life, the figure or landscapes — but has been adding abstract elements to his work.
Typical of this new emphasis is a small oil called "Primary Colors on the Water." It depicts four sailboats at the end of a small pier. The boats' red-orange and white sails and trim patterns cast multicolored reflections in the water.
Yellow sagebrush in the foreground with sunlit mesas behind them contrast nicely with a line of distant blue mountains, in Cobb's "New Mexico Fall."
Rowboats rather than sailboats contribute their rich hues to a "Colorful Cove," and orange mountains under a green sky make for an "Arizona Highways" moment, in two more oils.
In two other color-oriented oils, red and lavender flowers help create "Beauty in an Alley," and a "Cypress Point" interacts well with the blue of ocean and sky.
Less colorful and more austere, with shadows playing more of a role, are his oils of a street in "Italia," and of birch trees by river, casting shadows on the snow.
The same might be said of his oil of a mud brown "Century Old Adobe" building, and of "Aspen in Vail (Colorado)," which seem to be losing some of their color.
Colors are also more muted in his oil of the tall, delicate, spindly shapes of trees on the coast of "Windswept, Southern California."
Handled with a delicate touch, too, are Cobb's drawings of female models, striking gestural but unforced poses, done in conte on paper with chalk highlights.
The show is well worth visiting in its run through Jan. 8. The gallery, whose name means "found objects," is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Call 405-593-1063 for information, or visit http://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/_1u-Czp4WKH88XQRAI4-Tvc?domain=objetstrouvesok.com for information.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Colors ebb and flow in former doctor's Oklahoma City art exhibit
