Whiting Tennis Blue Tarp, 2007
(Acrylic and paper collage on canvas; 12 x 8 feet).

I saw some really good gallery shows on Saturday, some of which I'll post about in the next couple days, but one that really grabbed me was Weekender: A Short Presentation of Recent Work by Whiting Tennis, at Greg Kucera. The show seems to be over now (?), but some of the work is still on view. [The piece shown above was purchased a few years ago by the Tacoma Art Museum, so you can see it there.]Whiting Tennis White Mountain, 2007
(Acrylic and collage on canvas, 3 x 4 feet)

A lot has been written and discussed about Whiting Tennis — I hadn't spent much time with his work until Saturday, but he is quite well-known — so I won't go on here, other than to say that the beautiful textures he creates (perceived and real) are extremely detailed and interesting to see up close.Whiting Tennis Blue Tarp (detail)

His paintings feel like the Northwest to me; I think if I saw his work in a gallery somewhere else it would remind me of home. You can see more at gregkucera.com.

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Update: I just listened to Jen Graves' Stranger podcast interview of Whiting Tennis again (I hadn't listened since it first went up in 2007) and it's really interesting — I like the way he discusses the process of getting into the Blue Tarp painting, and a lot of his thoughts about moving back to Seattle after ten years in New York echo thoughts I've had over the past year since our move. Click here to check it out. Those podcasts are a great resource for learning about art in Seattle.