John Cleaveland exhibit opens this weekend at Huntsville Museum of Art

Cleaveland 1536x640 1 — Critically-acclaimed realist John Cleaveland will be the next “Encounters” artist featured at HMA. (Huntsville Museum of Art)

This weekend marks the opening of the Huntsville Museum of Art’s latest “Encounters” exhibit, which features the work of critically-acclaimed realist John Cleaveland.

“Encounters: John Cleaveland” opens in the Grisham gallery of the Huntsville Museum of Art on December 11. Here are some more details:

Cleaveland is known for expansive oil paintings that offer a glimpse into iconic Southern scenes and vast pastoral expanses of the United States and Europe.

Cleaveland enjoys conveying perspective and qualities of light in remarkable detail, allowing for total immersion in his works. Standing in front of one of Cleaveland’s large-scale oil paintings, you may feel “as if you could walk right into the landscape before you,” according to the HMA.

Cleaveland received his BFA from the University of Georgia and held a graduate assistantship in the study aboard program in Cortona, Italy.

“The muse won’t come if the door is not open and the door won’t open if you’re not working. What motivates me to paint is finding a place that I’m pulled into because of specific light, or the fact that the landscape bears witness to great events or conflicts. When light resonates from inside a painting instead of just sitting on top of the canvas, that’s when a painting becomes real for me.”
John Cleaveland

Cleaveland has exhibited his work at the Albany Museum of Art, the University of Georgia, the Missouri State Botanical Gardens, and in several Red Clay Survey exhibitions at the Huntsville Museum of Art. His paintings are in the permanent collections of the Asheville Art Museum, the UGA State Botanical Garden of Georgia, the Combat Art Collection at the U.S. Marine Corps Museum, and the Morris Museum of Art, among others.

Montana 0016 — Cleaveland enjoys conveying perspective and qualities of light in remarkable detail. (John Cleaveland)

‘Encounters: John Cleaveland’

Finding A Better Place John Cleaveland — Now a landscape painter for over 25 years, Cleaveland is deeply dedicated to his craft. (John Cleaveland)

Cleaveland’s exhibit opens in the Grisham gallery at HMA on December 11, led by an artist gallery walk and presentation at 2PM that afternoon.

Access to the opening presentation will be included with the general price of admission and free for members. Tickets can be purchased at the front desk in the lobby of the Huntsville Museum of Art or online here. The exhibition will be on display until April 2.

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