River Gallery exhibit features pair of Chattanooga artists/pals

Pair of local artists/pals have dual exhibition at River Gallery

"Tennessee Gothic" by James Courtenay James
"Tennessee Gothic" by James Courtenay James
photo "Raphael Master's Study" by Norman Davis

If you go

› What: New work by Norman Davis and James Courtenay James › When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday, through March 31› Where River Gallery, 400 E. Second St. › Admission: Free› Phone: 265-5033› Website: river-gallery.com

About the artists

› James Courtenay James is a Chattanooga-based oil painter and former graphic designer/illustrator who specializes in “creat[ing] the illusion of three-dimensional space formed by light and color — the interpretation of a unique moment that lives on the painted surface,” according to his artist’s statement.› Nddorman Davis is a Chattanooga-based portraiture artist, primarily working in charcoal, whose focus is to “creat[e] artwork which captures the likeness and spirit of a person … to make original works which merge fine art into our modern-world relevance,” according to his artist’s statement.

There's a perception among some patrons of the arts that a creator's talent is proportionate to how far away their works are being exhibited. The greater the distance, they reason, the better the art must be.

Although it wasn't designed to do so, an ongoing exhibit at the River Gallery in the Bluff View Art District features two Chattanooga-based artists, Norman Davis and James Courtenay James, whose works debunk this idea of artistic merit-by-the-mile.

"Most people just like to see good work, good quality work, whether it's someone who lives in the Chattanooga area or outside," says Angie Supan, the gallery's assistant director of sales. "As long as it's good quality and speaks to someone, that's what matters. Both of these artists are so fine and have such good quality."

Davis, a 38-year-old charcoal portraiture specialist who works at the gallery, and James, a 67-year-old oil painter, both focused their efforts on figurative, or representational, pieces rooted in the real world. Beyond this shared subject matter, the two have a long-standing friendship built after they met during a weekly live-model drawing class at Townsend Atelier.

Despite the points at which their artistic philosophies overlap, Davis' and James' pieces take different approaches to rendering their subjects.

James' paintings are rife with vibrant colors, while the younger artist's charcoal works are predominantly black-and-white pieces that embody an almost scientific aesthetic akin to the anatomical sketches of Renaissance masters such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo.

Even though they have divergent approaches, Davis says he considers James to be his mentor and suggests the effort that he put into the nine pieces he produced for the River Gallery exhibition was a direct response to the elder artist's own dogged work ethic.

"When you have two people like Courtenay and myself together, we're always trying to improve, so we both went into it with the mindset of presenting our absolute best," he says. "Courtenay worked long hours on his paintings and was constantly trying to find new ways to present his work. That encouraged me to do the same. It's not a competition so much as a camaraderie. I think that, in a lot of ways, helped bring out better pieces in both of us."

The 17 oil paintings James produced for the show over the course of a year are layered in colors, which came from tweaks he made to his approach during their creation. The beauty of presenting works in such a large grouping, James says, is that it offers an opportunity to appreciate a longer perspective on the evolution of the artist's process.

"I see things develop. Many times, when I'm just painting in the normal course of things, it's much harder to see that arc," he says. "Especially in this latest series, I've been approaching things a little differently.

"I'm still doing representational art, but I might choose to make a statement with the color in a very different way that may not relate to the original reality. I'm moving color maybe a little bit more to the fore, in terms of the way I'm expressing my art."

Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.

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