Mike Hale | Child | Acrylic on wood panel | 48” x 32” | 2010

Mike Hale

Patricia Ingersoll | Flow | Acrylic and mixed media on paper | 36" x 39.5"

Patricia Ingersoll

LGTripp Gallery is pleased to present recent works by Patricia Ingersoll and Mike Hale in their first solo exhibitions at the gallery.

It starts with a blank surface. From there, colors and lines take form as they are added to the surface. Whether applied in a calculated progression or in a way as to let outside forces take control, the resulting images differ in control and balance. The visual energy in Patricia Ingersoll’s paintings is most vivid at their core, while Mike Hale’s lean horizontal canvases are unlikely and fortuitous impasses to propelling forces.

Patricia Ingersoll engages in a process of mapping and diagramming organic elements, later deconstructing the image through spontaneously adding and removing parts. Grid lines define a three dimensional space within which the subject exists. Emanating from a central focus, static explosions reveal the underlying structure and details of the elements. Even though the image has outward momentum, the viewer’s eye is drawn into the ‘’nucleus.” In her work, Ingersoll explores the complexity of the individual discordant aspects and yet achieves a balance in which you are seemingly at the center.

For the past 35 years, Patricia Ingersoll has exhibited her work from Maine to Pennsylvania. A former member of the Nexus Gallery and the Charles More Gallery in Philadelphia, PA, she was a 2009 Fellowship recipient from the VA Center for the Creative Arts in Auvillar, France and received an individual artist Fellowship from the Independence Foundation in Philadelphia. She was just awarded an Honorable Mention for Works on Paper at the Art of the State in Harrisburg, PA. From 1992-2004 she was a lead muralist for the internationally famous City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. She currently works at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts as the manager of the PAFA Alumni Sales Gallery.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Mike Hale embraces the unpredictable. He begins his work without a pre-conceived plan; letting go of any and all traditional conventions. Hale invents different techniques of paint application. He then builds and expands upon the unforeseen results of his new techniques, such as seen in the painting “Then.” The centrifugal force, in addition to gravity and roller techniques, moves the paint across the surface and Hale captures this movement on a secondary surface. His paintings actively and quickly move the viewer’s eyes across the image. This movement emulates the speed and energy that delivers the paint to the surface. It is dynamic and cannot be contained within the defined space of the work’s surface.

Mike Hale has exhibited his work locally and internationally. He has been the recipient of awards as a member of Philadelphia/Tri-State Artists Equity in 2011, 2010, 2004, 2001 and 1999. His artwork is in numerous private, corporate and university collections. He also has shared his art with local non-profit organizations close to his heart, including the Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College and The Pottstown Symphony Orchestra. Currently he resides in Gilbertsville, PA, where he is a full-time artist.

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