One local artist has been given the opportunity of a lifetime. A new art exhibition at the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, entitled A Magical World, features the imaginative acrylic paintings of 26-year-old artist Jacob Houston, a Greenwich, NY native. The show opened earlier this month and runs through June 23.
A landscape artist with a highly sophisticated and technical style, Houston’s work includes familiar pastoral scenes from his part of Upstate New York (Greenwich is about 30 minutes from Saratoga Springs), as well as European cities that he’s traveled to—and some far-off places that he hasn’t. Take, for example, one of his newest paintings, Africa, which features a desert-jungle landscape populated by animals. (Houston’s actually never been there.)
Jonathan Canning, Head Curator of the Hyde Collection, came across Houston’s work about a year ago and was immediately impressed. “His work is well-executed in terms of the craft of painting,” says Canning. “I think he really has that down.” Canning also says he admires Houston’s unique vision of the world and how he goes against the grain by omitting all evidence of his mechanical process. Houston does this by using smooth brush strokes to create a finished surface, diverging from the current trend of gestural painting. “There’s a great deal of thought going [into] what initially appears to be a straightforward presentation,” Canning says.
Take a look at some of Houston’s work in the above gallery.
