Pansies Mix

Piece description from the artist

Gentile, Italian born, began his career as a graphic designer in Milan, Italy. He moved to the Boston area in the late 1960's and began painting full time in the early 1970's. Gentile currently paints in his studio adjacent to his house in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife, Ruth. His most recent work combines collage, Photoshop, and painting. The paintings vary in size, from 2 × 2 feet to the largest work; a group of 15 canvases measuring over 6 × 10 feet. Gentile's use of bold warm colors can be traced back to his Italian roots, while his work with computers is representative of today's tech-savvy audience. Gentile paints fractured areas of magazine collage peeking through a layer of color applied in Photoshop. This technique allows the viewer to identify subjects in the collage, but only if they take the time to look between the abstraction.

By Art Critic Charles Giuliano, Professor of art history, School of Art and Design at Suffolk University in Boston, MA.

The initial response to the paintings is their apparent abstraction. One is absorbed by the play of high chroma colors, areas of bright red and yellow that with heat and energy