Self-taught oil painter June Stratton (b.1959 Honolulu, Hawaii) is known for representational figurative oil paintings that incorporate the female figure with natural landscapes. Recent works incorporate gold leaf and handmade plaster (fresco-secco) casts. These casts created from both the organic environment surrounding her studio and treasures the artist has collected over years. Large paintings may contain as many as 30 individual casts which are then gilded or painted with oil.
Her work is collected by art collectors and art galleries internationally including recent solo shows with Robert Lange Studios SC.
Select Collections include Bennett Collection of Women Realists, Texaco Incorporated, US Department of State, Bank of America, The Mayo Clinic, and The St Regis Hotel.
Recently published in Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Issue #26, PoetsArtists Figurative Realism, Issue #100. Also, American Art Collector, Cover, October Issue 2016
June Stratton’s studio looks over salt-water marshes a few steps from her home in a lush sub-tropical coastal area near Savannah Georgia USA
June Stratton was born in Honolulu Hawaii and studied at the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, CA. Stratton began her art career in Pioneer Square, the art district of Seattle, where she was the administrative director of a successful gallery and atelier. Stratton now lives in both Atlanta and Savannah.
Stratton combines photorealism and reductive tonalism to create quiet meditative paintings with a strong sense of color and composition.
Describing her work as “realism that captures fleeting moments that have to do with light”, Stratton isolates aspects of a place; then with sensitivity to form and composition she creates meditative spaces through the suspension of moments.
Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally in galleries and Museums such as the Whatcom Museum of History and Art in Washington.
Stratton has been published in American Artist and her work is owned by many private and public collections such as The Federal Reserve of Minneapolis, The U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., and Texaco Incorporated of New York, NY.
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Artist statement
My current paintings have been described as kinetic portraits. Although often figurative, they are not portraits in the traditional sense; I am trying to capture an essence of movement that uniquely defines a subject. I admire painters such as Gerhard Richter and Francis Bacon for their immensely skillful figurative representations.
I am also, inspired by the narrative, lighting and compositional examples in the films of directors such as David Lynch and Sam Mendes.
To begin my paintings, I take hundreds of photographs in one sitting and spend hours carefully selecting three or four images.
These selections become a template from which I start the creative technique on canvas, where the image evolves. The painting stages are where the composition is pushed for dramatic effect and the desired level of chiaroscuro, with layers of luminous color, is realized.
This is best achieved in oil paint. It is the painting process that I enjoy the most and I feel gives the subjects in my paintings their soul. As in film noir, I illuminate shadowy figures in mysterious environments to embody a sensual and arcane spirit. Viewing the art should be an ongoing, progressive experience where elements of my painting are not immediately apparent at first glance.
Selected Exhibitions
- 2019 Double Vision, Duo Show, Robert Lange Studios, Charleston, South Carolina
- 2019 I Observe, Rehs Contemporary, New York
- 2019 Secondary Meanings, Zhou B Art Museum, Chicago
- 2019 Painting Today, MEAM Museum, Barcelona
- 2018 Painting the Figure Now, Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, Wisconsin
- 2018 Oceana, Duo Show, Robert Lange Studios, South Carolina
- 2017 Aquamarine, Robert Lange Studios, Charleston, South Carolina
- 2017 In the Garden, Distinction Gallery, Escondido, California
- 2016 Interplay, Robert Lange Studios, Charleston, South Carolina
- 2015 Ten, Robert Lange Studios, Charleston, South Carolina
- 2014 I see a Pattern, Robert Lange Studios, Charleston, South Carolina
Animal Dreams, Hagedorn Foundation Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
Flutter, Robert Lange Studios, Charleston, South Carolina
Flying Dreams, Whitney Gallery, Savannah, Georgia - 2013 North vs. South, Robert Lange Studios, Charleston, South Carolina
- 2013 Evolution, Robert Lange Studios, Charleston, South Carolina
- 2012 MuseArt, Whitney Gallery, Savannah, Georgia
- 2009 Splash, Lanoue Fine Art, Boston, Massachusetts
- 2008 Lanoue Fine Art, Boston, Massachusetts, June Stratton and Melody Postma
- 2007 Whitney Gallery, Savannah, Georgia “Femme Transparent”
Lanoue Fine Art, Boston, Massachusetts “Vision – Contemporary Female Artists”
Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Roanoke, Virginia “Vision – Contemporary Female Artists”
Armstrong Atlantic State University, Savannah, Georgia “Metamorphosis”
2006 Lanoue Fine Art, Boston, Massachusetts - 2005 Whitney Gallery, Savannah, Georgia
Lanoue Fine Art, Boston, Massachusetts - 2004 Whitney Gallery, Savannah, Georgia
- 2000 Friesen Gallery, Sun Valley, Idaho and Seattle, Washington
Sutton West Gallery, Missoula, Montana - 1999 Artists of Rural Landscapes, Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Bellingham, Washington
- 1998 Lisa Harris Gallery, Seattle, Washington
John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, California, Landscapes, Invitational (catalogue) - 1998 Lisa Harris Gallery, Seattle, Washington
- 1997 Waterworks Gallery, Friday Harbor, Washington
- 1994 Kimzey Miller Gallery, Seattle, Washington
- 1993 Introductions 1993, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, California
Kimzey Miller Gallery, Seattle, Washington
Publications
- 2019 Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, Issue #26, Artist Spotlight
- 2018 PoetsArtists #100 Figurative Realism curated by Dirk Dzimirsky
- 2018 American Art Collector, 16 Contemporary Women Artists, March Issue
- 2017 South Magazine, Eleven of the South’s Greatest Artists, March April issue
- 2016 American Art Collector, Cover, October Issue
- 2016 American Art Collector, April Issue
- 2016 Fine Art Connoisseur.com
- 2010 PoetsArtists.com, October Issue
- 2008 Artistaday.com, January 7
- 2006 Deep Magazine, “The Deep End”, January-February Issue
- 2005 Savannah Morning News, “Small Works, Big Ideas”, Dec 10
- 2004 Savannah Morning News, ”Visions of Light”, Oct 03
- 1998 Southwest Art, “Best of the West: Luminous Landscapes”, August Issue
- 1994 American Artist, “From Rags to Riches”, May Issue
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June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
June Stratton Painting
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