Galen Silver

A native of Rochester, Galen Silver grew up in what is now the Neighborhood of the Arts. While in grade school, he took art classes at the Memorial Art Gallery. In the latter part of his business career he revisited painting, and re-discovered his passion. He is now a full-time visual arts practitioner whose primary creative medium is oil on canvas.

Galen paints in a variety of styles, but particularly enjoys subject matter that focuses on painting people in settings where the viewer can imagine a story. He embraces the challenge of capturing the personality of his subjects, and paints until he knows he has a forever connection to that work. He strives to draw the viewer's attention to each element of connection, meaning that if someone was walking past the painting, they would stop, look, and remember it.

Almost always working from a photograph, Galen’s work includes commissions, in addition to his own choices. Over the scope of his paintings, he tries to incorporate humor, irony or ambiguity—sometimes all three.

“When I start a painting I like to jump into the water and learn how to swim,” Galen says. “My work never exactly resembles what I imagined when I started, because I go where the painting takes me. When it’s completed, I like the feeling of arriving at a destination.”