Artist’s Statement
“I cannot remember a time when I didn’t draw. I received that gift from my father, Fon J. Montgomery, an architect. The notion that one uses drawing not only to explain a concept, but to more fully understand it as well, came from him. Drawing is a language that I speak; graphic design is what I do with it.
“First and foremost, I am a graphic designer. When I look at things, it is the composition of a scene that catches my eye. I see the shapes, the darks and lights, the colors and balance or tensions within the scene. I seek to simplify what I see into flat solid shapes of color with hard edges and high contrast, creating strong focal points and aligning elements within the artwork to focus your view. I remove the detail and distracting elements until I arrive at the strong, clean essence of an image by the reductive process of simplification. This process, the technique of the classic poster artist, makes striking, powerful images.
“My refinement of this technique makes the paper itself part of my illustrations. I love the ambiguity and interest created when large, white unprinted areas within the artwork become an integral part of the scene, or when those unprinted areas simply become the white border sourrounding the work. The viewer’s eye separates the graphic elements, and the mind combines ink and white paper into the full image.”
About the Artist
Greg Montgomery received his formal art training at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, where he studied painting and lithography, and at the College of St. Rose in Albany, New York, where he studied serigraphy. Recently, Greg has taken watercolor master classes in Europe with the Australian watercolorist David K. Taylor.
After completing his degree in New Mexico, Greg worked as art director and set designer for public television in New Mexico. As art director for General Electric’s Corporate Marketing Communications Operation in Albany, Greg worked on major campaigns for the power systems and plastic business components, and on the world-renowned GE calendar. Greg moved to the world of publications as art director for Capital Region magazine. Currently, he works as a design editor at the Albany Times Union newspaper where his distinctive illustrations regularly appear.
A native of Washington, D.C., Greg travels extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and Europe, capturing images with pen, paint, and camera. His clean colors, dynamic form, and unusual use of white space make his work unparalleled in the field of equestrian, sporting, and poster art. Greg’s series of posters for the Travers Stakes race in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. is the longest running series by a single artist for a single event in racing history.
The strength and beauty of Greg’s artwork has resulted in a number of commissioned works. Berkley Publishing, a subsidiary of Penguin, had Greg create 32 covers for the re-publishing of the famous murder-mystery series by Dick Francis. Greg also created the official poster for the opening of Walt Disney World’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa.
Most recently, Greg collaborated with Vic Zast, writer for MSNBC, The Bloodhorse, and other thoroughbred publications, as the illustrator of “The History and Art of 25 Travers,” published in June 2008. In August 2008, Greg will have a solo exhibition of his work at the Arts Center Gallery in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., the first time that all of his original silkscreens and giclées will be on shown. Previous exhibits include Gallery 100 in Saratoga, Beverly’s, Uncommon Grounds, and a number of other venues in New York’s Capital Region.
Over the years, Greg’s bold and striking images of the racing scene have steadily increased in popularity. Today, his posters and prints hang in public and private collections worldwide and in the permanent collection of the Library of Congress.
Contact information
Greg Montgomery
PO Box 11541
Albany, NY 12211-0541