Contemporary Gallery

In this gallery you will find a collection of paintings by artist Brad Parrish that in their simplistic way convey a profound message. At times it is the vibrant colors and bold strokes of confidence and accuracy that deliver what this artist is trying to say. Then other times, it's the settling colors and gentle blended stokes that takes the viewer beyond the surface of the work, deeper into the feeling the artist wishes to convey.

Brad had thrown away many works like these away over the years for several reasons. Mainly because of the constant pressures to satisfy his publisher's and gallery owner's needs for his other works that were selling out. Frustrated over the popularity of his other works that restricted the creative freedom he needed to paint what he wanted, Brad often felt pigeon-holed. After Brad left his publishers, he created such works as "LOVE" and the "Destiny of Love". In between publishers Brad painted pieces like 'The Eye's Have I'", 'Las Vegas' and 'Everlasting'. Several of Brads early contemporary works were stolen. One that Brad misses to this day ,'The Wave', was an original watercolor that the artist did when he was 16 years old. Brad says, "I used to be flattered that someone wanted my art so badly that they would steal it. Not having a photograph of this piece or the others that were taken is heartbreaking." The works we do have in this gallery collection is an important piece of who this artist is.

Destiny of Love

Medium: Oil on Canvas / Measures: 24"h x 36"w / Date Painted: 2008

This remarkable contemporary painting is painted in Brad's belief that all love comes from God. Here Brad exercises this belief in showing two people falling in love as their spirits travel well beyond the speed of light to join in God's destiny for them both.

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Las Vegas

A Painting Thought to Be Lost or STOLEN Is FINALLY Found

Medium: Oil on Canvas With Applied Gold Leaf / Date Painted: 2007 / Size: 20"h x 16"w / Signed: "Parrish" in the Lower Right-Hand Corner

For over a decade this painting titled “Las Vegas” by artist Bradley J. Parrish was thought to be lost or stolen as there was no record of it being sold. And it has bothered Brad all these years as he searched and search for it over and over. This contemporary piece painted in oil with applied gold leaf was painted back in 2007 and after it dried Brad put in with another one of his favorite paintings in a locked and sealed crate so that nothing would happen to them both. As the years went by Brad forgot about these pieces he put in this locked crate and it wasn’t the norm for him to put his originals in locked crates unless they were being shipped out to a buyer. With so many of his works stolen over his career, Brad thought this one too had been stolen as well. That was until today January 19, 2018, when he came across a small piece of paper with a combination for the padlocks of a couple of his large fiberglass-covered wooden crates. All these crates are always empty and were the only place Brad had not thought to look in as he could not find the universal combination for all the padlocks all these years, besides Brad, had always Knew they were all empty and locked and remained empty in storage all these years until he needed to use one of them and then the bolt cutters would come out to open the empty crate.

As Brad opened five of these crates, the fifth one he tried yielded this painting and a framed original lithograph titled “The Embrace” from his popular Phantom of the Opera works. Brad was ecstatic that the paintings he thought were stolen or lost were now found in the mint condition just as they were when he placed them in the locked and sealed crate for them to remain safe. He said after he opened it, “It really made my day and I now just know that 2018 will be a great year for me, It has to be, if starting out 19 days into this new year I find two of my favorite works after all these years of thinking they might have been stolen and lost forever.” The works will now be offered for sale on the Parrish Fine Art website as Brad planned to do so many years ago.

About This Painting in Brad's Own Words

In this contemporary expressive work, I was making a painting as a representational work that would capture a feeling or an experience I had rather than a visual story or a description to arrive at a meaning for this piece. I always describe my works like this one as follows… “If someone asked you to paint a picture of what it feels like to make love or be in love, what would you paint a picture of?” A fantastic illustration or even the finest realism painting could never describe that true and deep down feeling in a million years. Just as words fall short of explanation, so does art, photography etc. It can lead us there but falls short of delivering the feeling deep in our hearts. In my attempt to push my envelope in this painting I cranked up the music as I always do when painting all my works and painted what I had remembered about the feeling I had when I went to Vegas and used only $20 out of my pocket to yield a $5000 winning streak. Laying money and gold leaf down on this painting while “Luck Be A Lady” by Frank Sinatra blasting away in my ears and painting with confident brush strokes brought all my feelings into one moment in time and beating all the odds. Yes, I could have painted roulette wheels, poker chips, and even the whole Vegas strip, but why? I wanted to capture with my heart and hands on this canvas “WINNING in Las Vegas”. I hope what I wrote here for you sheds a little more light on my attempt for this piece. This is one of those pieces that as an artist I am very pleased with as it is a total expression from the heart, unbound or unplugged and raw. Ask any artist and they will agree that when you look back at one of your pieces and see a pure excitement, honesty and the emotional rush you had on working on the piece, you nailed it! More important is when you cant find any fault in anything you would have done differently or changed after all these years since you painted it, This is when you as an artist know that this is as good as it gets! This is how I feel when I look at this piece.

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LOVE

Painted in 2009 / Medium: Oil on Canvas / Image Size: 20"w x 30"h

A contemporary vision of love in a painting Brad describes as the two individual spirits of two people in love. Showing that love always peaks between two souls at different amounts and at different times until they become one.

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