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ARTIST GRANT PECOFF sees things differently. Dream-like landscapes are painted in popsicle shades; the horizon can curve up in a smile, as if viewed through a fisheye lens. The tall buildings that line a riverbank lean against each other like old friends and cast a dancing reflection on the still water below.
Pecoff, once a firm believer in realism, was forever changed when a teacher at the Academy of Art in San Francisco challenged him to create an abstract work. The young artist decided to replicate a photograph of a Greek Orthodox church in Istanbul, an image with spirals and turrets and domes that demanded exacting lines and shapes. He imagined hues that one would never see in the real world and took a risk.
“I got a canvas and painted it in orange and yellow——colors that vibrated against the blue sky,” he says. “I didn’t think it was possible to paint like that. Since then, I’ve been embracing and exaggerating the way I see things in the world.”
Pecoff Gallery opened recently in Little Italy with a retrospective of works that reflect the native San Diegan’s journeys around the world. The painting Stormy Skies over Tobago Cays puts the viewer just behind the pointed tip of a white sailboat, edging its way through turquoise waves toward distant billowy clouds. Three Sisters of Gualas invites us to gaze up from a trio of yellow tree trunks, where a ruby sky is decorated with a spray of lavender palm fronds.
The exhibit is proof positive that Pecoff is living his dream——”My dream was to be an artist and exhibit in a gallery”——but his frame of mind was destined to inspire others as significantly as his work. That story goes back five years, when he stood in front of a North County gallery that displayed his work and watched as a petite blonde strode purposefully toward him with an older couple.
“She was telling these people, ‘You have to check out this painting——it’s beautiful,” says Pecoff. The giant canvas portrayed his interpretation of the Coronado Bridge as a twisting blue rail that rises up from rippling azure waters and trails into a fiery sunset. As the woman discussed the work’s finer points, Pecoff introduced himself. She peered closely at his signature, scrawled in the lower corner of the canvas. Then she gave him her card and invited him to call.
“We were married five weeks later,” says Layne Pecoff. “My mom said, ‘If I knew you were going to marry the guy, I would have paid a lot more attention.’ ”
Soon after marrying, the thirtysomething couple moved to the Bahamas. Layne, who practiced law in Georgia before relocating to San Diego, left her budding practice as quickly as Grant abandoned his realism period. Instead of writing legal briefs, Layne penned whimsical poetry that complemented Grant’s paintings. Their collaboration resulted in two stunning coffee-table books suitable for children. The first, Open Your Heart, illustrates the exotic locales the couple has visited, while the latest volume is titled Live Your Dream. Both are available at the gallery or can be purchased online. The Pecoffs are now based in Hawaii, where Grant paints lush landscapes in any color he chooses.
Pecoff Gallery is open Thursday noon-7, Friday noon-9, Saturday 11-9, Sunday 11-7 and by appointment. 1772 Kettner Boulevard, 619-964-1990; pecoff.com.
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