Davis, CA
About Phil Gross:
For the past thirty years Phil Gross had been involved in the art of filmmaking. In 1997 he worked as a cinematographer for a documentary about the northern Californian painter, Gregory Kondos. The more he filmed the artist, the more he wanted to join him…and so he did.
“I know that my experience in filmmaking and theater play a hand in what ultimately ends up on my canvas.” His compositions often contain re-occurring characteristics; low or high angle perspectives, compressed telescopic viewpoints, strong contrast in lighting, and a practice called “contre jour” meaning painting into or “against” the daylight. “My goal is to bring a landscape forward, press it, vertically stretch it, imbue it with saturated colors and drama so that you ‘the viewer’ feel you are standing in the painting and surrounded by it rather than viewing it from afar. Its front row orchestra.”
Education
- University of California, Davis, BS Geology - Davis, California,1978