The Big Idea | Greg Latch | Original Mixed Media Art

Original mixed media on canvas by Greg Latch · Painter and mixed media artist · Available at Marcolina’s Fine Arts Gallery, Tampa, Florida · Ships worldwide

A face sits low in the left of the canvas in The Big Idea, small round glasses on, eyes wide and a little startled, and from the top of the head everything pours upward. The hair is not hair so much as a flood of ribbons in dotted red, teal, olive, and cream, streaming toward the top edge and carrying tiny figures and shapes along with it. On the right, a hand rises out of the clutter with the fingers curled, as if it just caught something or is about to. Around it the painting turns into a crowded workshop of cogs, circles, eyes, beads, and small faces, all packed in tight. Latch signed it in the lower left corner.

The title does the explaining and leaves you the work. The head is where the big idea starts, and the painting shows what that looks like from inside: not one clean thought, but hundreds, all moving at once and all competing to get out. The hand on the right is the part people tend to stay with. It is reaching into the pile, trying to pull one idea out before it gets buried by the others.

The surface is as busy as the picture. The paint is built up in raised lines and ridges, the way Greg builds with oils, markers, and knives, so the ribbons almost stand off the canvas. It is the kind of painting you can look at for ten minutes and still find a small face you did not see before.

Collector’s Note

At 60 by 44 inches, The Big Idea is a large, wide original that needs a wall of its own. It suits a studio, an office, a creative space, or a living room where people tend to stay and talk. The surface is raised and layered, and a photograph flattens it, so a virtual viewing or a visit in person shows you the paint properly.

Acquisition

Available through Marcolina’s Fine Arts Gallery with worldwide shipping, full insurance, and professional art packaging. Payment plans available. Private viewings by appointment in Tampa, Florida. Virtual viewings available for collectors anywhere in the world. Payment plans are arranged directly with Marcolina, and every inquiry is answered personally within 24 hours. Each original comes with a Certificate of Authenticity. Contact us to inquire. New to collecting? Read our collector guide →

A standard shipping rate is charged at checkout. Once your work is packed, we calculate the actual shipping cost for its size and destination. If there is a difference, we will follow up to either invoice the additional amount or refund the difference, whichever applies.

About the Artist

Greg Latch was born in Mississippi and studied acting and fine art at the University of Mississippi. He later worked as a portrait artist in Jackson Square in New Orleans, and in Tampa he spent years as a nurse in the city’s jails and a psychiatric hospital. He did not come to painting through galleries or art school. He came to it by watching people, and it shows.

For thirteen years he painted at Artist Unlimited alongside artists with master’s degrees from around the world, learned from master painter Ray Paul, and taught drawing with live models. He builds his surfaces with oils, markers, and a range of knives, layering until the canvas turns almost sculptural, and he works from spontaneous drawings and mismatched imagery.

His work sits between portraiture and abstraction, and he says himself that it is not really about the image. He was featured in the Persona exhibition at Marcolina’s Fine Arts Gallery alongside Blake Emory, Guillo Pérez 3, and Mark Rendini. He lives and works in Tampa, Florida.

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