Gale Fulton Ross

Gale Fulton Ross is an African-American visual artist who lives in Sarasota, Florida. Primarily a painter, she also practices portraiture, printmaking, and sculpture.

Life

Gale Fulton Ross was born in Medford, Massachusetts, in 1947, the oldest of nine children.[1]

She studied at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, where she explored a wide variety of styles and media including sculpture.[2] She continued her art education at the California College of Arts and Crafts in San Francisco, concentrating in the study of Fine Arts and art history.[3] In addition to formal academic training she has studied under the guidance of established artists, including Melvin Johnson, at the Vesper George School of Art, Boston; Cleveland Bellow, of the DeYoung Museum, Oakland California; and Pierre Parsus,[4] of France, while a resident at the La Napoule Art Foundation.[5]

Initially trained as an art curator, Fulton Ross traveled extensively throughout Africa, Europe, and as far east as China, in order to study and paint. She was a participant in the second World Festival of Black Arts in Lagos, Nigeria in 1977. In 1984, she was an artist in residence in Bellagio, Italy and produced an exhibition for the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio,[6] and in 1993 was the recipient of an award to work and study in the People's Republic of China.

She developed a reputation early in her career as a portrait artist, and has created likenesses of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Justice Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, Arthur Ashe, and Governor Michael Dukakis, among others.[7] In 2009, she was selected to paint a portrait of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber.[8]

Philosophy

Fulton Ross has cited several classical artists as influences on her work, including Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and Rembrandt,[9] as well as modern-day African-American masters such as Elizabeth Catlett, Charles Wilbert White, Beauford Delaney, and Romare Bearden. Her style incorporates both the figurative and the abstract, as reflected in her eclectic creations. She believes that artists are the humanistic conscience of a materialistic society.[10] Her visual expressions most often depict poignant images of people, especially African American women, reflecting her philosophy that it is the depth and variety of human feelings that motivates art, and indeed, that she must become a more sensitive human in order to be a better artist.[11]

In that regard, she has dedicated considerable time to mentoring and creating opportunities for younger artists as the founder of the Fulton-Ross Fund for Visual Artists of Sarasota County, which provides a supportive environment and awards competitive grants to those just beginning their careers.

Awards

Collections

Exhibitions

Commissioned works

Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Congressman Ronald Dellums
Ambassador Bradley Holmes
Governor Michael Duckakis
Mayor Andrew Young
J. Bruce Llewellyn
James Baldwin, University of Massachusetts
Ambassador, Franklin Williams
Jackie Robinson for Ms. Rachel Robinson
Dr. Arthur Logan for Mrs. Marian Logan
Byard Rustin
Governor L. Douglas Wilder
President R. William David, Council of Churches
Bronze, Charles Hamilton Huston, North Carolina University, Sarasota Memorial Hospital Pediatrics Dept.
Arthur Ashe for the Arthur Ashe Foundation
Selected as Feature Artist, Sarasota Magazine, December 1995
Law Office of Rosen & Shapiro, Sarasota, Florida
Law Office of Shaffer Zapson, New York City
Premier African American Painter, Jacob Lawrence and his wife, Artist Gwen Knight
San Francisco General Hospital -Permanent Collection, 1978
Forbes Gallery, Absolut Vodka Ad Campaign
100 Black Women, Boston, Massachusetts
National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Officers, Washington, D.C.

Notes

  1. ↑
  2. ↑
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ fr:Pierre Parsus
  5. ↑ https://www.lnaf.org/residencies/alumni
  6. ↑ http://www.fultonrossmag.com/museum.html
  7. ↑ The Bershad Gallery
  8. ↑ "Women of the Hour", Sarasota Herald-Tribune, January 28, 2009, p. 7B.
  9. ↑ "Abstract Art Actually an Ancient Tradition", Sarasota Herald-Tribune, August 14, 2008, p. 24.
  10. ↑ "In Search of Her Visual Voice", Flavour Magazine, Autumn 2000, p. 31.
  11. ↑ "After the Storm", Sarasota Weekly Planet, June 6, 2001, p. 8.
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