Birth of the Cool Painting

Don Perley began his career as a artist in 1975. His early work focused on hard-edge acrylic paintings and small conceptual pieces. In the ‘90’s, Don transitioned into painted assemblages created with everyday objects and abstract oil paintings bursting with color. A Midwest native, since 2004 he has lived and worked in Stamford, Connecticut. Don’s work has appeared often in group shows and juried competitions in Connecticut and New York, including The Peter Marcelle Project, Southampton, NY, and the BWAC Brooklyn Re-Cycle show. Don has an extensive youtube March 2021 studio interview on the ups and downs of a life as a self-taught artist, conducted by Liana Voia, the creator of Multiple Arts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HdwQnNgiWI Artist Statement: Don Perley’s work is improvisational, layered and complex. Secrets are revealed slowly, both in oil painting and deep relief assemblage. He is immersed in the raw and rough. However, just as in the improvisations of nature seen from a hiking trail, the raw and rough, upon close observation, are also delicate, soothing and healing. Don’s paintings push the eye from one passage to another on a journey of color juxtapositions, while exploiting the physical properties of paint and ink, pushing them to their limit. His assemblage pieces deform familiar raw materials, exposing their essence and possibilities. Ultimately what Don creates are arenas and conditions for colors and materials to display their properties freely and combine in unplanned and joyous ways. His intention is not so much the creation of art but more a search for spontaneous life springing out of improvisations in pure color. This is a fundamentally exuberant enterprise, and the artist sees it as direct painting, direct expression and direct communication.