Charles Wildbank

"The Sweet Life" fills up Sag Harbor's Kramoris Gallery June 30 to July 21, a series of hyper paintings of delectable desserts, candies, cherries and fruits by Charles Wildbank, who is not a realist painter – or rather not entirely realistic. The old saying "every picture tells a story" is certainly true in his case.

Each painting has elements of the fantastic, the anthropomorphic, the divine. Before all else, his paintings are rapturously beautiful – abundantly slow. His stories are sometimes narrative, more often, evocative.

Their great scale places them in the realm of surrealism invoking a sense of wonderment and curiosity, at times even approaching the scientific. His fruits and pastries tell these tales, nostalgically: joie de vivre. Kramoris says: "his paintings are like slices of fresh melon that refresh the soul. They are emotionally kinetic." But it is in his series of ocean waves that he lets loose his technique to immerse us in a surge of cleansing optimism.

Though these colorful and richly rendered pieces take up generous wall space, they are tiny by Wildbank's standards, considering his more typical 18 foot tall mural on board the QM2 ocean liner. "However large or small, anything that passes through my funnel of the creative moment is for me a wonder. I may as well fill every available space that cries for color", Charles would muse.

Wildbank, born and raised in Long Island, now paints in his East End studio on the North Fork. Wildbank will make an appearance at his reception at Kramoris Gallery on Saturday July 2nd between 5 and 7 PM. Exhibit commences June 30 and runs daily through July 21.