Painting Archives - John Gerstner

Faces & Figures | St. Augustine Art Association

John Gerstner

I’m pleased to have two works included in Faces & Figures, a 2026 juried exhibition at the St. Augustine Art Association. The show brings together a wide range of approaches to the human form, and I’m glad to see these pieces hold their own within that conversation. The selected works, Holding the Center and Unapologetic, […]

Painting Fiction vs Painting Non-fiction

John Gerstner

Much of art can be considered non-fiction: a reflection of reality, captured with varying degrees of accuracy. The goal seems to be to put on canvas a replica of what the eye can see, though of course it is never exactly that. Even the Mona Lisa, celebrated as one of the most famous realist paintings, […]

camel and female in surreal landscape

The Artist as Mad Dervish

John Gerstner

I start with the flailing of a mad dermish. I smear, splash, scrape, wipe, dribble, draw … all the while blending colors and strokes until something says that’s enough. There’s something there. Let it be. Come back to it later. I do. Invariably I start to see shapes and patterns emerging through the chaos. Looking closely […]