Note Type
Antony Hayton, Exhibit DirectorNote
James Gibson (1939-2017)
Fireball
Oil On Upson Board Circa Mid 1960s
Image Size: 24" X 30"
Curiously Alfred Hair and James Gibson were always competing with each other, be it in sports in school or painting Florida Landscapes. During the 1960s they both had distinctive styles that the trained eye identifies as their work instantaneously. This painting, a surreal burning sky painting by James offers us a curiosity. The flock of birds near the center is quite unlike the type of birds we normally see in James Gibson paintings, but they appear almost identical to the birds that we find in an Alfred Hair painting "Orange Firesky" about 5 paintings to the left. Perhaps Alfred and James were painting in the same location that day and James asked Alfred to add something to his work, in this case, a flock of birds. What do you think? The rest of the painting is pure James Gibson including lots of "fast grass" and his stylistic palm trees standing tall. Note the tree in the distance and how similar it is to the tree line in the painting "Devil Palms" directly above.