Bucks County Foot Bridge
By Michele Malinchak
An artist, screenwriter, film director, producer, musician and author, George Gallo is a true Renaissance Man. No lightweight when it comes to talent, he’s painted 3,000 canvases and made at least 20 films. As he balances careers between film making and painting, a common thread runs through his work—the art of storytelling.
“Eventually, I came to understand that all of the arts are intertwined,” he said. “That composition in painting is the same as structure in storytelling; that characters are the same as colors; that colors are the same as chords in music.”
He's written screenplays for movies such as Wise Guys, Midnight Run, Middle Men and 29th Street, to name but a few. He also wrote and directed Local Color, a semi-biographical film based on the painting experiences of his youth. George has won several awards for both writing and directing and has worked with some of the finest actors in Hollywood.
He’s also an award winning artist who paints landscapes in the tradition of the Pennsylvania Impressionists. Since he was a teenager he’s had a long standing love affair with Bucks County and its artists, and though he’s never lived here, he’s visited often and knows it like the back of his hand.
“I know every blade of grass in Bucks County,” George said, having painted at places like Cuttalossa Farm, Upper Black Eddy, the Delaware Canal towpath and Primrose Creek by Phillip’s Mill in New Hope. His painting, “Phillip’s Mill Creek in Winter,” is in the permanent collection of the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio.
Currently most of his time is spent in Los Angeles due to his work in the film industry,
but he continues to paint here whenever time allows. “Every time I go back I feel as if I’m visiting an old friend,” he said.
Painting offers a respite from the adrenaline rush of film making. “When I’m writing screenplays or making moves, you work with an army of people. A movie is all about conflict and then there’s resolution at the end. In painting there’s only harmony, and I’m in a much better state of mind when I’m painting than when I’m making a movie. The two are not dissimilar, though, in what it is I’m trying to say.”
Standing at 6’4,” he said, “I’m a large gregarious person so I paint big.” His canvases typically range from 40 x 50 to 50 x 60 inches, and as a plein air painter, he has to work fast to cover them. “I paint like I’m fighting off bees, like a madman,” he said.
He likes to jump right in and paint but not without first picking a point of interest. Although he strives for accuracy, he wants the freedom to make changes as they come to him. “It’s a process of give and take,” he said, “you don’t want to get yourself boxed in. It’s important to surrender to the painting as opposed to trying to control every aspect of it.” He’s a big believer in ‘happy accidents.’
George learned about color by reading artist Emile Gruppé’s book, Gruppé on Color: Using Expressive Color to Paint Nature. He keeps his palette simple using two blues, two reds, two yellows with the addition of white and black. Earth tones are achieved by mixing complimentary colors into one another. The secondary colors—orange, green and purple bring light into his work
He prefers painting on untoned white canvas because as paint dries, it becomes more translucent, letting the white show through and adding brightness. George begins by painting a series of shapes in warm and cool colors. His goal is not to try to paint objects like trees, but rather a series of values and color shifts. “A painting should be more about the light and shadow and the temperature of the light source,” he said.
Half of his landscapes were done from nature and the other half in his studio. For the past 10 years he has been doing more studio work using photos as a reference. “They jog my memory and take me back to the excitement of actually being there,” he said.
George was born in in 1956 in Port Chester, New York and later moved to Mamaroneck in West Chester County. He was an only child in a noisy, Italian American family. “There was lots of laughter and both my parents had great senses of humor. Their doors were always open with lots of cousins visiting and bringing food. It was a type of warm chaos. My paintings tend to be busy because of that.”
His artistic talents emerged at the age of three when he copied a drawing of a helicopter from a book. It was done so well that his mother didn’t believe he drew it and had him do another one. From that point on, she encouraged his talent, first buying him a watercolor set and later oil paints.
A real awakening occurred when he was 12. While visiting a family friend, he was drawn to a print on the wall entitled, “Autumn Bronze” by Robert Wood. “Something happened to me then,” he said, “I was just knocked out. I couldn’t believe you could evoke those sorts of emotions with oil paint.”
To further whet his interest, a company next to his junior high school reproduced paintings into prints. He spent many hours at the Donald Art Company and became friends with some of the workers who gave him a bunch of prints. George took them home and tried copying them. In addition he painted landscapes around his home, “making a big mess,” he said.
As a teenager he’d take the train into New York City to visit Grand Central Art Galleries which featured representational art. He happened to walk in on an exhibit of Pennsylvania Impressionists Edward Redfield, Daniel Garber and Walter Schofield. “When I went to that show, so alive and full of color, it was like an epiphany.” He made several visits to the gallery and became friends with the owner, John Evans.
As soon as he got his driver’s license, he drove to Bucks County, seeking to find out more about these artists and where they painted. He took numerous trips there in his 20s.
In his early 30s he became serious about painting and returned to Grand Central Art Galleries. He showed his work to John who remembered him and gave him his first one man show. It opened the door in terms of selling his work, but because he was also involved in screenwriting at the time, he always got distracted and pulled into another movie. Other than the occasional show, he didn’t have much of a painting career.
When he was 18 he was introduced to Russian master artist, George Cherepov who lived across the border in Greenwich, Connecticut. George studied with Cherepov for three years, learning about the dignity of nature and the natural order of things. Cherepov told George, “If you’re more observant of nature, getting better at painting will be automatic.”
“I developed a deep reverence for nature and some sort of connection to God, something so deep and spiritual,” George said. “Painting itself became secondary, a byproduct of communing with nature.”
He enjoys the challenge of painting outdoors and has great respect for Redfield, known for painting in extreme weather. He also likes George Wesley Bellows, John Constable, artists of the Ashcan School and Russian impressionists for the passion in their work.
George attended Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York to study art, but quit after one semester. The school leaned more towards modern art and he wanted to learn landscape painting. He also took courses at the State University of New York in Purchase.
He became interested in films and screenwriting by watching old Bogart films with his father who was a big movie buff. George began writing short stories and then his first script at age 19 or 20. It was bought by a producer but never made into a film. At the very least, he said, “I made a little noise as a writer.”
He moved to Los Angeles in 1983 with a screenplay for Wise Guys which was bought and made into a successful movie. Painting took a back seat while he focused on screenwriting. After the financial success of his film Midnight Run, he returned to art, alternating back and forth from films to painting.
In addition to painting and making films, George plays the guitar and is also an accomplished saxophone player who was in both the marching band as well as a jazz ensemble in his hometown.
He’s also written two books, Impressionist Painting for the Landscape, co-written with author Cindy Salaski, and The Art of George Gallo: A Contemporary American Impressionist, a retrospective of his work spanning over 30 years.
He taught landscape painting four years in a row for American Artists Weekend with the Masters and also gives painting demonstrations on YouTube.
George is exclusively represented in the U.S. by Rich Timmons Studio and Fine Art Gallery, 3795 Rt. 202, Doylestown, Pennsylvania. “Winter, spring, summer and fall, Gallo is an all seasons painter,” Rich said. “We couldn't help but notice how our visitors and clients gravitated to his work. Besides that, of all the artists I represented in the past, many of which were really good painters, I am of the opinion that Gallo is destined to be recognized as one of the great artists of the late 20th century and early 21st century.”
His paintings are in the private collections of actors Robert DeNiro, Meg Ryan, Mel Gibson, musician Bruce Hornsby and several others.
In addition to exhibiting at Grand Central Art Galleries, he’s had several one man shows at the Salmagundi Club in New York City and the Thomas Moxley Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 2016 he had a retrospective exhibition at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio.
Among his numerous awards, he received the Arts for the Parks Award in 1990 for his landscape painting of the Delaware River entitled, “The River in Winter.”
Despite living in the midst of Hollywood glamour and having friends like Robert DeNiro, George manages to stay grounded. He’s been married 40 years to his wife Julie and the couple lives with their cherished rescue cat, Sophie.
Looking ahead, he’d like to produce two more big films, major film studio productions unlike the independent movies he usually makes.
He’d also like to return to Bucks County and paint for a year, capturing all the seasons except summer which, he said, “is too green.”
When asked if he had to make a choice between film making or painting, the answer was easy. “If I could give it all up and just do one thing,” he said,” it would be painting.”
To see more of George Gallo’s paintings, visit www.3795gallery.com.
Michele Malinchak is a freelance writer who has a degree in art and enjoys oil painting.