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Biography Jeff Aeling: Rain and Light Jeff Aeling’s newest landscape paintings were inspired and informed by one afternoon and evening (June 4, 2005 to be exact) while traveling through the Kansas Flint Hills. That day the hot featureless blue sky changed, as it often does, to a dramatic series of thunderstorms, with the possibility of tornados. The storms could be seen approaching over distant prairie, miles away, and at the same time, they seemed to arrive so quickly that the idea of shelter evaporated. The air was charged with the grand spectacle of rain, wind, and light. Aeling not only rode out the storm, he sought it out, photographically recording his impressions as source material for new paintings. The resulting works make up Jeff Aeling’s exhibition entitled Rain and Light at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art. Serving as a metaphor for the expansiveness of the American landscape itself, Aeling’s Flint Hills paintings, low and wide, capture the power of the land, the beauty of the light, the vastness of the clouds upon the last remaining expanse of tall grass prairie in the country. Wide-open spaces are an integral part of our national identity, and Aeling shows us not only the specific qualities of a particular day in June, but also the very essence of place. He achieves the sense of grandeur of the past and pairs it with the visual clarity of a twenty-first century artist. Just as the very landscape of the Flint Hills looks much as it did one hundred centuries ago, Aeling’s paintings anticipate memory and capture the transitory and eternal as one. The paintings of Jeff Aeling have been exhibited widely across the United States. His work can be found in numerous private and public collections, including the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art (Sedalia, Missouri) Sprint World Headquarters, Johnson County Community College (Overland Park, Kansas), Exeter Oil Corporation (Denver, Colorado) and DST Systems (Kansas City). Jeff Aeling was born in Iowa City, Iowa and currently resides in Kansas City, Missouri. His father was an Army physician during the 1950’s and 1960’s so the family moved from one hot spot to another when the Cold War dominated the American consciousness. His connection to nature came when the family was posted in Hawaii. In addition to painting absorbing landscapes images at his home studio in Kansas City, Missouri, Aeling recently concluded a monumental exhibition that took over two years to design and create. "The Layman’s Guide to the Passage of the Millennium" included over a hundred exquisite three-dimensional assemblages and paintings addressing the anxieties of contemporary culture. Aeling’s painting travels take him all over the southwest. He finds himself returning to particular areas that allow clear observations of the weather, atmosphere and the unobstructed lay of the land. Out on location, Aeling absorbs the geography and the rich earth colors, terra verde, ochre and reds that permeate the landscape. Jeff Aeling’s universal landscapes possess a stunning intimacy that conveys unexpected power and emotion. His paintings draw upon a vastness that gives you a sense of wonder and awe about the universe. Once in the studio, Aeling paints with economy. He keeps his brush strokes gestural, often painting at arm’s length, as he applies pigments to board he uses the smallest number of brush strokes. Jeff Aeling’s paintings have been shown in exhibitions and purchased for collections across the United States. Jeff Aeling has been painting seriously for over 20 years. EDUCATION SOLO
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COLLECTIONS Numerous Private Collections |