Steven Rhude - Paintings/Drawings

Please click the link below to read the full review of Gallery 78's Food Show Local gallery show feeds the creative soul Canadian Gothic, o/p, 20" x 24", Gallery 78

Cabot's Window, o/p, 20" x 24", Steven Rhude Perhaps the twentieth century tried more than any other era to define painting, or at least to analyse the act of painting. It says a lot about the self consciousness of the times. It obliterated the representational image - and then went and retrieved it from the rubbish bin. It divorced itself from the use of the human figure in painting - and then scurried to make up again and bring it back into the post modern pantheon of representation. It ushered in several emblems of contemporary culture from Campbell Soup cans to the grids of Mondrian. Which brings us to windows. One of the longest living emblems of the painting act, the window and its meaning can carry us backwards or forwards depending on our current conventions. As a flat surface it can propel us easily into the illusion of space. Or, conversely, be abstracted into a barrier to reality, allowing the viewer to attain their own aesthetic experience within a ri...

A Room at Cape Spear, o/p, 20" x 24", Steven Rhude It appears to be a room easily described. It is a view of a room, but not what one would consider a room with a view. Is it early morning light? Or, is it the dusk of evening shapes that recede? We will never no because there is no visible light source.  The room is minimalist, a grayish silver. A post modern reformation decor, more suited to a contemporary gallery, with nothing in it... but a concept no one believes in. It has been declared surplus. Stand back far enough and the colourless walls, may limit ones freedom. Even the brick chimney is concealed by white washed planks. Yet, the room may also buttress our imagination.  Our viewpoint is specific. We stand in the rooms center. There is no other occupant to share the flatness of the white wooden walls with us. The slightly open door is "our" door, it is neither open or closed; just slightly ajar. It merely delineates the flow from o...

Stairs, Cape Spear, o/p, 35" x 24", Steven Rhude Early one morning the sun was late Henry Hall looked out to sea a forerunner of fate. The rise was a flame the sea it was dark, later he would discover it took just one tiny spark. For a keeper who is old tired and worn, he raised his arms he raised his head   to the next one born. The Halls were a family keepers of light. South of Rame Head the  rocks were a fright. A reef just off Plymouth, a mariner's gate a place for destruction  damnation and hate. The wars were a plenty between England and France The first tower rose nothing left to chance. By surprise one morning a privateer did show off with the architect off they did go. Now Louis XIV was angry tired and worn. He raised his arms he raised his head to the next one born Rudyerd's was built  in 1709 The shape of a cone They said it looked fine. A roof made of lead between the light, the years kept on passing ...

A Child's life is like a piece of paper upon which every person leaves a mark. Chinese proverb From Beijing, oil on panel, 24"x 18", Steven Rhude This portrait, is the third one applying a primary colour as an abstraction for what we in the west refer to as "background". As overt as it appears, it is the most telling of the young boy's true background - not one of space, but one of culture, geography, history, and place. Steven Rhude, Wolfville  

Head, Dissecting Rooms, U of T, chalk and ink, Steven Rhude Modernism's divorce from the human figure did not go unchallenged. The Ontario College of Art and Design maintained a very good fine arts program throughout those difficult years, with the option for drawing and painting students to study anatomy at the University of Toronto's Anatomy Museum and Dissecting Rooms. Anatomy was also discussed in relation to the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, and on to the Eakins master work The Gross Clinic.  Head #2, Dissecting Rooms, U of T, chalk and ink, Steven Rhude The following drawings were executed at the University or Toronto's Anatomy Museum and Dissecting Rooms in 1982. The experience left a indelible effect on my approach to painting and the expression of realism (regardless of the subject). Torso, Dissecting Rooms, U of T, Chalk, Steven Rhude Fetus, Anatomy Museum, U of T, graphite, Steven Rhude ...

"At moments of intense aesthetic experience we see not only with our eyes but with the whole body... Jack Chambers Colosseum, graphite, 8" x 14", 1986,  Steven Rhude  Colosseum, graphite, 8" x 10", 1986, Steven Rhude It still seems to me that the mind of the artist travels out through the eyes; a journey of sorts in order to navigate the nature of objects, or people - and especially the nature of place. There is a reliance on reality and imagination that takes place when coaxing a work into existence. Steven Rhude, Wolfville 

Dog and Field in Wolfville , digital photo, Steven Rhude The Pope resigned the other day and the streets of Rome was full of tears, no one new exactly why, hadn't happened in six hundred years. They chased him and they hounded him they had to know before he was dead, Cornered and pressed for an answer he could only hang his lonely head The seconds they ticked by truth and wisdom was at hand. Great secrets would be revealed.   There was calm across the land. His cross it was much too heavy his robes they had turned to red. His soul was a churning crimson, When he looked up this is all that he said.  "Well there's a  time to take the dog for a walk, time to pick up the leash and that collar. Clear your head and restore the balance, forget the almighty dollar. Put down the incense and take off your mitre, Take to the path and forget the clock, Gotta leave the Vatican behind just taking my dog for a walk."  Well, I went to a school bo...

Boy with Yellow, oil on canvas, 14"x 16", Steven Rhude It never ceased to amaze him. That act of scrubbing oil paint around long enough on a canvas or panel, until finally  creating a mental dialogue with his subject. Who was this child? Who is he now? And who will he be?  Simultaneously sensing an expression evolve, like a ship advancing out of the fog, the painter grappled with shape analysis and proportions. The child's eyes changed with every blink - or when gazing down at the concrete floor, and then back up; staring strait at him. Highlights moved back and forth from the white of the eye to the pupil. Eventually, the afternoon light, obscures the brown eyes as they turn into black marbles, like pools of the deepest value imaginable. He wiggles and squirms to much for the painter, but even though the sitting is short, the experience is long. Well then he ponders why he would want to... no, how could he transcribe the secrets the boy was already whispering i...