Detailed and gorgeous watercolors by Stockbridge’s Greg Crawford fill the walls of the Gifford Gallery now until Sept. 25.
Crawford is a self-taught artist who has been a graphics professional for nearly fifty years. His father was an artist too, and Crawford was determined to be one from the time he could hold a pencil.
While still a junior in high school, he sold a cartoon about the Beatles to the Saturday Evening Post. The issue appeared the week the group appeared on the “Ed Sullivan Show,” in February of 1964. As a result, Crawford was a celebrity of sorts for a while, and then went back to being the “weird kid” who drew pictures in algebra class, he says.
A rich and varied career as an illustrator and graphic designer that started right out of high school provided him with the opportunity to work in nearly every medium there is, but his first love has always been watercolor.
“Watercolor can be an unforgiving medium; you cannot cover up a mistake as easily as oils or acrylics might permit,” Crawford says. “Ah, but the ‘happy accidents’ one occasionally encounters can be gratifying, indeed.
“Juxtaposing detailed subjects with loose, washy backgrounds can yield dramatic results. The subtle transitions that can be achieved when blending colors are unique to watercolor.”
Crawford has illustrated several books and covers and has a few children’s books to his credit, some of which he wrote as well. He is currently illustrating “The Flying Mouse,” which will be followed by a book he wrote and illustrated called “Hill Farm.”
When illustrating a book, Crawford researches his subjects thoroughly and takes many reference photos so light, shadow, fabric and reflections are accurately rendered.
Crawford has also enjoyed taking part in community theater for more than two decades, and has portrayed many well-known characters in musical theater. He designed and helped to build sets for many productions. For the past six years, he has designed and built the sets for Chandler Center for the Arts children’s theater camp productions that are presented over the Fourth of July weekend every year.
Not content to simply paint, illustrate, design and act, Greg also writes the occasional theater review for The Herald of Randolph. He wrote a short play called “Finding Earl” and well over a hundred articles for The Mountain Times of Killington.
Crawford was not born in Vermont, but he says he got here as fast as he could, sometime back in the 1970s.
See his free show in the Gifford Gallery, located just left of the main lobby of the medical center at 44 S. Main St. (Route 12) in Randolph. To learn more about the Gallery, call (802) 728-2324.
