From Askart Archives/DesChamps Gallery, Lambertville, NJ
Jeff Gola (born 1962) received a BA degree from Allegheny College, spent his junior year in Temple University’s program in Rome Italy, and has continued his art education with courses at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. His work has been included in many juried competitions in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Jeff currently lives and works in Moorestown, New Jersey with his wife Linda.
He specializes in egg tempera painting, a medium that dates back to ancient times. Over the centuries methods for creating paint, pastels, watercolors, etc. evolved using a variety of bases and pigments. Today, most supplies are available to artists via a host of purveyors; egg tempera being the exception.
The process of working in egg tempera involves blending dry pigment with distilled water and egg yolk to create the colors for the artist’s pallet. It also requires the preparation and application of gesso – a plaster-like substance – to a board upon which the painting is created. Few artists work in this highly demanding medium which requires as much alchemy as it does artistry; however its special qualities are uniquely suited to capturing the properties of light and exploring its interplay on texture, which are elements ever present in Gola’s work.
Gola states, “I have found that the slow and careful process that tempera requires to achieve its depth and luminosity suits my temperament and vision. The gradual building of form and the patient exploration of every surface nuance that is involved in tempera painting requires a meditative and reflective approach, one that I feel enables me to examine personal memories and feelings that these subjects evoke in me. Having grown up on a farm, I have always had a strong interest in observing the rural landscape and the elements that influence that environment; the cycle of the seasons, the changing skies and the weather it portends—the constant presence of the of the natural processes of life and the fading remnants of distant history.”
Jeff Gola’s work is not limited to egg tempera. He has also received accolades for his work in oils and watercolors. Jeff Gola currently exhibits his work at the desChamps Gallery, 7 Lambert Lane, Lambertville, New Jersey.
Selected Exhibitions and Awards include: 2008 – “68th Annual Juried Exhibition”, Woodmere Art Museum, Chestnut Hill PA – John R. Maxwell Prize; 2008 – “28th Annual Lambertville Historical Society Annual Exhibit”, Coryell Gallery – Lambertville Historical Society Award; 2007 – “The Alchemy of Light”, desChamps Gallery solo show; 2006 – 26th Annual Lambertville Historical Society Annual Exhibit”, Coryell Gallery – Virginia K. Millham Memorial Award and Peoples Choice Award; 2005 – “Contemporary Realism”, Space 301, Mobile AL; 2003 – “63rd Annual Juried Exhibition”, Woodmere Art Museum, Chestnut Hill PA, Juror Janet Fish.
