Longfellow-Hurlbut
Concourse Gallery

On view March 17-November 8, 2026

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This exhibition features acrylic paintings by retired Waterloo commercial illustrator Greg Hargreaves. At the core of his work is the tension between the ‘wild’ and the attempt to harness and control that ‘wildness.’ His compositions explore the countryside outside his backdoor, which is
a patchwork quilt of pastures and row crops, lush, green, and pastoral. Hargreaves says he finds a never-ending source of inspiration in the
co-existence of chaos and order. An accomplished and industrious Midwestern artist, Hargreaves used to begin with thumbnail sketches,
but he abandoned that in favor of a more intuitive approach. The artist quips, “Just for fun I will throw some paint on a canvas and let the paint lead me in directions uncharted. That journey is to find out just what kind of artist I will be when I grow up. Seriously, our inner child needs nurturing and freedom. That child needs recess. That child needs the open air and a butterfly.”