Drenth’s JC art display includes pochades

There have been many visitors to Jamestown College since fall asking about Brock Drenth and when he’d be having another show. Well, they can plan on a few weeks to enjoy his work.

Drenth will do a one-man showing of his most recent works starting next weekend. His show, in the Reiland Fine Arts Center Lobby Gallery, will open Jan. 20 and will run through Feb. 10 during regular school hours.

Drenth’s display will include some paintings previously shown at other galleries in California and North Dakota, but most will be works not shown at Jamestown College.

His oil paintings are modestly priced (starting at $200 and up). His work is in the art collections of many people here in Jamestown and across the state. Jamestown College has some of his work in its permanent collection. He donated a painting for the college’s Dine & Bid gala last year as well as painting donations for several nonprofit charities.

The Jamestown Meeting Grounds coffee shop has a number of his pieces on display as does the Medora Gallery of Art and collections in California. My own collection includes more than a dozen of his paintings.

His earlier work includes an illustration of large trucks at work in a mural at Northern Equipment in Jamestown, designs for advertising and as fine art paintings in banks, colleges, historic sites and of course at private homes. He was selected to show work at the Academy of Art College Museum in San Francisco during spring 2011 and participated in many group displays with the graduate school.

His exhibit will include about a dozen new paintings. These range from still-life studies to landscapes and studies of figures. He will also have some smaller pochade paintings (working color sketches for finished paintings) for sale. The pochade works Drenth paints are fresh and so alive they seem to breathe.

“Pochade” is French for “pocket,” and is a small site reference for the atmospheric coloration an artist sees/records. Artists use “local” colors to record the light’s effect on objects. Because the Impressionists tended to do a completed work on site (plein-aire) the pochade technique fell out of favor for many.

Brock’s pochades are in the style of Sergeant, Robert Henri and John Constable, whose on-site drawings and paintings are well-known for their freshness and vibrant brush work. Drenth’s show will be replaced Feb. 12 with the Gallery Opener and High School Scholarship competition.

If anyone has an item for this column, please send to Sharon Cox, PO Box 1559, Jamestown, ND 58402-1559.

Tags: sharon cox, diversions