In this 36 × 36-inch acrylic and pencil on canvas, artist Gregory Cary brings together geometric abstraction, architectural suggestion, and atmospheric passages of color. Overlapping rectangles, angled planes, and curved forms create a layered composition in which space appears to shift between flat surface and imagined depth. A long turquoise band crosses the painting diagonally, connecting its contrasting sections, while delicate linear markings suggest doorways, structural outlines, and perspective studies. A dark, undulating silhouette beneath the upper blue field evokes a distant horizon, introducing a landscape reference within the painting’s architectural framework.
The palette balances luminous turquoise, aqua, and pale blue with terracotta, salmon, ochre, cream, and muted gray-violet. Deep brown, black, and ember-red passages along the upper and left edges lend weight and drama to the lighter central forms. Smooth expanses of color contrast with mottled, weathered textures that recall aged plaster, stone, and sun-warmed walls. The fragmented planes offer visual affinities with Cubism and Constructivism, while the expressive handling of paint adds warmth and spontaneity. Together, these elements suggest an imagined environment where architecture, landscape, and memory intersect.
Gregory Cary is a Renaissance artist whose background spans the visual and performing arts. He studied design, painting, and sculpture at the Universidad de las Américas in Mexico; trained in dance at the Juilliard School, the Joffrey Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre in New York City; and studied drama at the University of Southampton in England and at Juilliard, where he was a student of Marian Seldes.
Before establishing his career in the visual arts, Cary was a professional dancer in New York and Mexico. His credits include performances at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and with American Ballet Theatre, New Jersey Ballet, the Limón Dance Company, the Louis Falco Dance Company, and River Repertory. He studied and worked with leading modern and contemporary choreographers, including José Limón, Martha Graham, Helen McGehee, Kazuko Hirabayashi, and Jennifer Muller. He is a co-founder of Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in Tivoli, New York, where he designed the 180-seat dance theater, dance studios, and Dancers’ Inn, which accommodates 32 artists in residence.
Cary is a nationally recognized stained glass artist with more than 30 major public and private commissions in the Washington, D.C., area, as well as numerous works throughout the Hudson Valley and the Northeast, and in Israel, Canada, England, and Qatar. He received 12 awards and grants for public stained glass works in the Washington D. C. area where his 20-by-22-foot window, Celestial Pilgrimage, forms the entrance to the Festival Center on Columbia Road. Collectors of his work include the Norman Rockwell family.
With his husband, Bentley Roton, Cary collaborated on the design and execution of stage backdrops for So Long Eden, a work presented by the Paul Taylor Dance Company.
His recent work includes Postcards from the North, a series of pastels on paper incorporating vintage postage stamps from the 1930s into stained glass window designs. His latest series, Catskill Mountain Landscapes, explores architectural abstraction in acrylic and pencil on canvas.
Acrylic and pencil on canvas. 36 x 36 inches. Unframed.