Bob Nugent

Artist Website

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About the artist

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Bob Nugent received his Master of Fine Arts Degree in painting from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1971. Since that time Bob has been awarded numerous grants and fellowships including a Tiffany Foundation Fellowship, NEA Fellowship, Fulbright Travel Grant, and a California Arts Council Grant for his work in Brazil. He has had over 100 solo exhibitions and been included in over 550 group exhibitions across the United States and in Europe, Asia, and South America. Bob first became interested in the rain forests of South America in the summer of 1984 during a trip to São Paulo, Brazil to visit a friend. Over the past twenty-nine years he has made repeated sojourns (more than 40 trips) to South America and in particular to the Amazon Basin of Brazil. Now returning to Brazil three to four times a year, Bob continues his research and study of the flora and fauna of the Amazon region as well as other parts of the country. In 2005, after 34 years of teaching, Bob retired from Sonoma State University, receiving the Professor Emeritus Award. 

 

Artist's Statement

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My work refers to Brazilian travels, specifically to travels along the Amazon River Basin. Naturalistic forms suggesting beehives, vertebrae, cocoons, anthills, plants and insects spread across the surface of the work. My palette is often subdued, as if beneath a layer of darkness, suggesting mystery. My work transcribes memories of objects, impressions of things seen and felt.

 

Brazil and the Amazon River Basin have been the subject of and inspiration for my work for more than 25 years. Visiting the region now two to three times a year I find the landscape has many moods. The motion of the Amazon River is an apt metaphor for the act of churning up memories of objects gathered and sights encountered while traveling along the river's rough course. Within its flow, the river boils objects to the surface then swallows them up only to resurface again. My recorded impressions are memories of the river bound on both sides by high, dark jungle. Forbidding and beautiful. If it takes you in, it takes you in whole.

 

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