Gary Hoff
Fine Art
https://www.garyhoff.com
Rural Landscapes
The land around us is endlessly fascinating, enormously beautiful, and we are part of it. That is, when we remember to be.
Most of us live in cities now, sometimes with barely a scrap of greenery. But, the countryside still calls to us.
It drives me outside with my paints as it whispers to my imagination and embeds itself in my mind.
In eons past, beyond conscious memory, our ancestors needed the land. It was their Mother, the source of life and survival.
They settled fertile places, tall-grass plains and primeval forests. Places where food could be gotten, usually close to water.
These paintings of land and sky and water, made outdoors and in the studio, celebrate our Earth. They fill a place in my heart that had too often been empty but now so often overflows. I hope they fill a place in your heart too.
The land around us is endlessly fascinating, enormously beautiful, and we are part of it. That is, when we remember to be.
Most of us live in cities now, sometimes with barely a scrap of greenery. But, the countryside still calls to us.
It drives me outside with my paints as it whispers to my imagination and embeds itself in my mind.
In eons past, beyond conscious memory, our ancestors needed the land. It was their Mother, the source of life and survival.
They settled fertile places, tall-grass plains and primeval forests. Places where food could be gotten, usually close to water.
These paintings of land and sky and water, made outdoors and in the studio, celebrate our Earth. They fill a place in my heart that had too often been empty but now so often overflows. I hope they fill a place in your heart too.
Mountain Stream
Oil on Canvas
18" x 24" x 2"
Available
$2,200.00 USD
Oil on Canvas
18" x 24" x 2"
Available
$2,200.00 USD
Near Dubuque
Oil on Canvas
8 x 16 x 1
Available
$550.00 USD
Oil on Canvas
8 x 16 x 1
Available
$550.00 USD
Artist Bio
I was always a very curious kid. I wasn’t satisfied with just living in the world. I needed to understand how things worked and why.
Don’t ask me why I was this way. I don’t really know the answer to this question.
But what I can say is that this deep curiosity gave me a unique way of viewing the world and led to some very different life choices.
For example, like most children I always drew pictures. It was fun and the praise I got from my family and teachers was great.
But more than that, drawing became a powerful learning tool in my quest to make sense of the world around me.
So powerful was this tool and so driven was I to master it, that it was not long before I started gravitating to the logic and discipline of drafting and commercial drawing.
How many 14-year-olds do you know who earned a college-level diploma in product illustration? Well, you know one now.
It was a gift of oil paints by my grandmother in adolescence, though, that launched me on a long road to being a professional painter.
It was quite a surprise to me at the time. My grandmother was a very practical person due largely to necessity. She never got past the 8th grade and had to earn a living at a very early age.
Later on as a newlywed, she had to fend for herself while my grandfather went off to fight in World War I. And then she taught herself how to run a sundries shop that was the anchor of Main Street in her little town.
Never in a million years could I ever imagine that this tough, self-taught woman who suffered fools lightly would ever gift me oil paints.
And yet, from that tiny, surprising seed grew my lifelong love of making art.
I am thankful to this day for her gift, because creating art has served as both a refuge and an inspiration to me throughout my life.
During my military service in the Vietnam War, when I was the pilot of an airborne command post, and later when I was dealing with the stresses of medical training, my art offered me comfort and a sense of peace.
Today, I am grateful that I get to spend all my time doing what I love most, inspiring the same sense of comfort and peace through my art.
While you’re here, I’d like to share some suggestions with you for what to explore next:
I was always a very curious kid. I wasn’t satisfied with just living in the world. I needed to understand how things worked and why.
Don’t ask me why I was this way. I don’t really know the answer to this question.
But what I can say is that this deep curiosity gave me a unique way of viewing the world and led to some very different life choices.
For example, like most children I always drew pictures. It was fun and the praise I got from my family and teachers was great.
But more than that, drawing became a powerful learning tool in my quest to make sense of the world around me.
So powerful was this tool and so driven was I to master it, that it was not long before I started gravitating to the logic and discipline of drafting and commercial drawing.
How many 14-year-olds do you know who earned a college-level diploma in product illustration? Well, you know one now.
It was a gift of oil paints by my grandmother in adolescence, though, that launched me on a long road to being a professional painter.
It was quite a surprise to me at the time. My grandmother was a very practical person due largely to necessity. She never got past the 8th grade and had to earn a living at a very early age.
Later on as a newlywed, she had to fend for herself while my grandfather went off to fight in World War I. And then she taught herself how to run a sundries shop that was the anchor of Main Street in her little town.
Never in a million years could I ever imagine that this tough, self-taught woman who suffered fools lightly would ever gift me oil paints.
And yet, from that tiny, surprising seed grew my lifelong love of making art.
I am thankful to this day for her gift, because creating art has served as both a refuge and an inspiration to me throughout my life.
During my military service in the Vietnam War, when I was the pilot of an airborne command post, and later when I was dealing with the stresses of medical training, my art offered me comfort and a sense of peace.
Today, I am grateful that I get to spend all my time doing what I love most, inspiring the same sense of comfort and peace through my art.
While you’re here, I’d like to share some suggestions with you for what to explore next:
Golden Hour
Oil on Panel
16" x 20" x 2"
Available
$1,500.00 USD
Oil on Panel
16" x 20" x 2"
Available
$1,500.00 USD
Along the Bluff
Oil on Canvas
18 x 36 x 1.5
$3,500.00 USD
Oil on Canvas
18 x 36 x 1.5
$3,500.00 USD
Oak Savanna, Whiterock
Oil on Panel
12" x 16" x 1.5"
Available
$750.00 USD
Oil on Panel
12" x 16" x 1.5"
Available
$750.00 USD
Urban Landscapes
City structures fascinate the physician in me. Cities have their own anatomy, and like us they live, breathe, evolve, and even die.
Concrete and rebar are like bones. Streets and byways are a kind of circulatory system. The power grid is a nerve system of sorts. You get the idea.
My artist eye celebrates the endless change of light and shadow on streets and urban shapes.
There is fascination in the geometry and abstract of it all.
But more than that makes me paint city landscapes. It’s humans and our stories.
My urban landscapes are mostly peopled. People who all have stories to tell, like ours.
These pieces are my view of cities and the stories they reveal. I hope they give you pleasure.
City structures fascinate the physician in me. Cities have their own anatomy, and like us they live, breathe, evolve, and even die.
Concrete and rebar are like bones. Streets and byways are a kind of circulatory system. The power grid is a nerve system of sorts. You get the idea.
My artist eye celebrates the endless change of light and shadow on streets and urban shapes.
There is fascination in the geometry and abstract of it all.
But more than that makes me paint city landscapes. It’s humans and our stories.
My urban landscapes are mostly peopled. People who all have stories to tell, like ours.
These pieces are my view of cities and the stories they reveal. I hope they give you pleasure.
Outside the Brewpub
Oil on Canvas
16" x 24" x 2"
Available
$2,000.00 USD
Oil on Canvas
16" x 24" x 2"
Available
$2,000.00 USD
Invictus 2020
Oil on Canvas
36" x 18" x 2"
Available
$3,000.00 USD
Oil on Canvas
36" x 18" x 2"
Available
$3,000.00 USD
MacDougal Street
Oil on Canvas
36" x 18" x 2"
Available
$3,000.00 USD
Oil on Canvas
36" x 18" x 2"
Available
$3,000.00 USD
Positively 4th Street
Oil on Panel
16" x 24" x 2"
Available
$2,000.00 USD
Oil on Panel
16" x 24" x 2"
Available
$2,000.00 USD
False Dawn, Union Square
Oil on Panel
16" x 20" x 2"
Available
$1,500.00 USD
Oil on Panel
16" x 20" x 2"
Available
$1,500.00 USD
Winter Walk
Oil on Canvas
24" x 20" x 2"
Available
$2,250.00 USD
Oil on Canvas
24" x 20" x 2"
Available
$2,250.00 USD
Court Ave Sunset
Oil on Panel
12" x 16" x 1.5"
Available
$750.00 USD
Oil on Panel
12" x 16" x 1.5"
Available
$750.00 USD