By Ciera Battleson
Richard and Andrew Gamache are not only brothers, but brothers who share a love for the fine arts. Each one of them possesses excessive skill, precision, and talent when it comes to their practiced medium, and even their outlook on art is the same. Yet when each man sits down to create, what appears in front of them couldn’t be further from their similar ideals.
For the first time the Daytona Beach News Journal Center is proud to play host to the works of Richard and Andrew Gamache, running through the month of February. With Andrew wielding a chisel and Richard, his paint brush, on goers will get a chance to view both brothers’ creative differences when it comes to the world of art.
Currently working on a variety of projects, the News Journal Center, displays some of Richard Gamache’s early professional work. These include a variety of music inspired commercial paintings of musicians, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and B.B King. His work has a feeling of energy and happiness. He uses a wide range of bright colors to emphasize the livelihood of each picture, such as his depiction of the Rolling Stones. Using bright yellow and orange hues, the portrait represents the feeling of pure rock and roll.
Richard believes that, “A work of art should be able to hold the viewer’s interest through intrigue without any explanation. Color can totally dictate emotion.”
Also aside from his early music portraits Richard is currently proud to be showing his representation of celebrating the female figure in motion. With a use of warm colored oil paints and curved strokes he already nails essential traits to the emotion and shape a woman represents. Also, using oil paint, each picture emits a fresh and vibrant glow.
“No one has ever been able to improve on oil paint on canvas . Five hundred years from now it will still look as if I had just finished painting it yesterday”, explains Richard of his love for oil paints.
While Richard lives to paint, his brother, Andrew, lives to sculpt. Using translucency, the Florida native, exploits color and light. Some of his sculptures leave audiences with a question of it’s shape and identity, while other sculptures resemble that of a human face, living creatures and/or plants.
His sculptures are alluring in the fact that it takes the viewer a moment to really figure out what’s going on. Each work of art emulates a different color of light and an different feeling that goes with the color.
“I am never trying to make a profound statement that only a few people can get. My main objective when creating a piece of art is to entertain.”
Using clear casting resin for most of hist facial sculptures, Andrew likes to use any left over chunks of resin for other possibilities. Andrew explains while some visions come easy, some take a long while to develop. Even then it is hard to make each vision into a reality, and if each sculpture doesn’t meet his standards of excellence, he will scrap it and pick it up later with a fresh eye.
Often I will then see something that I overlooked in the piece the first time and the result is something better”, says Andrew of his artistic process.
While the brothers may practice mastering their different mediums, they intend to collaborate on illustrating a short story. The tale is to be about a grand party that’s to take place on the last day of human civilization. Their overall goal is to combine these illustrations and make a full length animated film.
“My twin brother and I were always challenging each other and learning from one another. I think that this was the strongest reason for our ability to interpret what our minds can see. I don’t think neither he or I knows where we are going artistically. I like it that way. If you know where you are going you rob yourself of chance”, says Andrew of his brother Richard.
The brothers are both hoping to have an opening for their exhibit sometime in the beginning of February. Details are yet to come. The exhibit by the Gamache brothers will be on display at The Daytona State News Journal Center until February 29th, located in the lobby area. Should there be any questions, guests should call (386) 226-1904.