Steven Rhude - Paintings/Drawings

Above the Avalon, o/c, 36"x 48", Emma Butler Gallery He had heard of that civilized smile from that state of mind. But you can't find it here, above the Avalon. No burning of witches. And no persons gone missing. Unless by the hand of the sea. The fisherman thought that victory of reason and tolerance took its time reaching their court of justice.  If it ever did. So the fisherman asked him if he had ever laughed.  He said: "No, I have never made ha ha." And he smiled as he said it. The fisherman then said that he faced the wrong direction. "Enlightenment was behind him." Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS  

Palette, oil, wood, mediums, layers of time, biographical history Palette : in the original sense of the word, is a rigid, flat surface on which a painter arranges and mixes paints. A palette is usually made of wood, plastic, ceramic, or other hard, nonporous material, and can vary greatly in size and shape....  From the original literal sense above came the figurative sense by extension referring to a selection of colours, as used in a specific art object or in a group of works comprising a visual style. This second, visual sense is the one extended in the digital era to the computing senses of the "palette". Wikipedia For a proclaimed 'Realist', it has always struck me as a not so gentle reminder that the very object that I have a creative relationship with in order to paint; that is an object I rely on, is in itself an abstraction. True it is a facilitator of sorts; a bridge between the idea and the canvas, but it is also and literally a molten, gnarled...

Mr. Bully's Meat Room, o/p, 24"x 20", Steven Rhude On occasion I've stumbled across shops or small businesses exhibiting vernacular signs with paradoxical qualities. I usually don't enter them for fear of disturbing the preconceptions they generate for me. Years ago I recall encountering a place called 'The Optimist Shop' in the Lunenburg Shipyard. I knew going in may leave me with a sense the motif could lose its lustre. So I stayed on the outside, preferring to let my imagination conjure up a variety of meanings that would instead remain fixed as possible anecdotes or a bigger truth, compared to a reality that may not be so favorable on the inside. In short, I had no desire to dispel the illusion the shop exterior created for me as a painter. So, I will probably never know Mr. Bully , or what his meat room  looks like inside. But since I only stumbled on it by chance, I know that it does exist, is located in Petty Harbor, NFLD, and is probably on...