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| Little Italy, San Diego, 2010, oil on canvas |
Based in San Diego, artist Grant Pecoff has a studio above a pizzeria in Little Italy. Focusing largely on his locality, his warped impressionist/realist style is consciously indebted to Van Gogh yet, equally, decidedly more positive in outlook, presenting the spaces of his city imbued with life, amplified colours and new perspectives.
The large arching sign lit up with neon blue is open and welcoming. The scene is as if taken with a fish-eye lens, edges curving away, enhancing the sense of the location as an expansive, hip, urban community. Everything leans toward to viewer, who thus becomes present within the space - with tree above and the street bending into the distance.
I visited Grant Pecoff's studio today before pizza on our last night in San Diego. Some of my photographs and more on our travels can be seen over at Andrew's blog, The Antipodean.
