"Rhapsody", 29.5" x 47.5" , Oil on Panel
Copyright Nansi Bielanski Gallup & David C. Gallup
This painting is a fantasy, but it is about real things. Real dreams, real experiences, real opportunities. We are, all of us, free to strip off our clothes and explore a kelp forest, to swim among the fish as one of them. As artists, we are free to let go of rules of perspective, "proper" subjects and representationalism, as we embrace new directions in painting with complete freedom. Underwater, there is no up or down... as we navigate the depths we swim head up, head down, sideways... orientation is as fluid as our weightless environment. This painting took two of us three years to complete because we were doing so much more than painting: we were re-imagining ourselves as artists, re-imagining art itself as what it might be for us. Why do we love to swim naked in the ocean? Because we are alive and free. Why do we paint? Because we are alive and free.
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Copyright Nansi Bielanski Gallup & David C. Gallup
This painting is a fantasy, but it is about real things. Real dreams, real experiences, real opportunities. We are, all of us, free to strip off our clothes and explore a kelp forest, to swim among the fish as one of them. As artists, we are free to let go of rules of perspective, "proper" subjects and representationalism, as we embrace new directions in painting with complete freedom. Underwater, there is no up or down... as we navigate the depths we swim head up, head down, sideways... orientation is as fluid as our weightless environment. This painting took two of us three years to complete because we were doing so much more than painting: we were re-imagining ourselves as artists, re-imagining art itself as what it might be for us. Why do we love to swim naked in the ocean? Because we are alive and free. Why do we paint? Because we are alive and free.
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"Tiputa Pass Snorkel", 48" x 48", Oil on Wood
Copyright David C. Gallup
Painting a coral reef, especially one as phenomenally healthy as the one at Tiputa Pass, Rangiroa, has unique challenges. The spawning of triggerfish there attracts swarms of triggers, but also those who would feed on their eggs, those who would feed on the triggers, and those who would feed on the triggers' predators. The question for me as a painter was how to organize this chaos into patterns which could be useful to me as a composer. In the end, I found my way through it but not without significant assistance from Gustav Klimt, who set the very same challenges for himself in his paintings of forests and flower fields over a century ago.
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Copyright David C. Gallup
Painting a coral reef, especially one as phenomenally healthy as the one at Tiputa Pass, Rangiroa, has unique challenges. The spawning of triggerfish there attracts swarms of triggers, but also those who would feed on their eggs, those who would feed on the triggers, and those who would feed on the triggers' predators. The question for me as a painter was how to organize this chaos into patterns which could be useful to me as a composer. In the end, I found my way through it but not without significant assistance from Gustav Klimt, who set the very same challenges for himself in his paintings of forests and flower fields over a century ago.
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"Ocean Swim", 24" x 24", Oil on Wood
Copyright David C. Gallup SOLD _____ |
"Freedom", 24" x 24", Oil on Wood
Copyright Nansi Bielanski Gallup _____ |
"Freediver Swim-Through", 30" x 30", Oil on Wood
Copyright Nansi Bielanski Gallup SOLD _____ |
"Blue Trevally in Moonlight", 16" x 16", Oil on Wood
Copyright David C. Gallup _____ |
"Thrill Seekers" (Swimming with Humans), 12" x 45", Oil on Wood
Copyright David C. Gallup
On a recent trip to the Tuamotu Islands (our Honeymoon, incidentally) we signed up for an eco-tour to snorkel with Black-Tip Reef Sharks in the Rangiroa Lagoon. While swimming with sharks is not new to us, we never pass on an opportunity to chill with these beautiful creatures. It was fun watching the tourists shed their apprehension and slip into the water, gradually gaining confidence as their experience gave them new attitudes about sharks. In telling the story in this painting, I wanted to show the “Touristy” aspect of the experience, because it is a symbol of hope for me that humans- even those who are normally land-locked- will overcome their fears of these predators and begin to protect them. The title comes from the all-too-real results of humans in the ocean: we kill about 100,000,000 sharks per year, and they kill about six of us per year. Why, then, are we the ones scared of the encounter?
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Copyright David C. Gallup
On a recent trip to the Tuamotu Islands (our Honeymoon, incidentally) we signed up for an eco-tour to snorkel with Black-Tip Reef Sharks in the Rangiroa Lagoon. While swimming with sharks is not new to us, we never pass on an opportunity to chill with these beautiful creatures. It was fun watching the tourists shed their apprehension and slip into the water, gradually gaining confidence as their experience gave them new attitudes about sharks. In telling the story in this painting, I wanted to show the “Touristy” aspect of the experience, because it is a symbol of hope for me that humans- even those who are normally land-locked- will overcome their fears of these predators and begin to protect them. The title comes from the all-too-real results of humans in the ocean: we kill about 100,000,000 sharks per year, and they kill about six of us per year. Why, then, are we the ones scared of the encounter?
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"Schooling Palometa" 16" x 16", Oil on Wood
Copyright David C. Gallup
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Copyright David C. Gallup
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"Clandestine" - Spawning Humphead Parrotfish, Coral Sea
48" x 36" Oil on Wood by David Gallup 2003
These Humphead Parrotfish have a secret internal clock which, known only to other Humphead Parrotfish, tells them when and where to gather for spawning. The female, seen here surrounded by the larger, more hump-headed males will herself become a male if she makes it to about nine years old.
48" x 36" Oil on Wood by David Gallup 2003
These Humphead Parrotfish have a secret internal clock which, known only to other Humphead Parrotfish, tells them when and where to gather for spawning. The female, seen here surrounded by the larger, more hump-headed males will herself become a male if she makes it to about nine years old.
"Rapture"
24" x 30", Oil on Wood
Copyright Nansi Bielanski Gallup & David C. Gallup
24" x 30", Oil on Wood
Copyright Nansi Bielanski Gallup & David C. Gallup