Steven Rhude - Paintings/Drawings

Rearrangement, Drawing Book detail - Rearrangement, drawing book Rearrangement detail detail The other day I went to an art supply store to buy a sketch book. I didn't feel comfortable with what I saw - everything was so... neat and impersonal. Who sketches anyways? Why don't they call them idea books, or thinkin' papers. Sketchin' reminds me of that red and gray Etch-a-sketch box given to me as a child years ago. So, I went home and poured a glass of wine and took out Gerald Ferguson's Standard Corpus of English Usage...  I used it as a conceptual  door stop for years.  Not anymore. Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

Road Apples, oil on canvas, 40" x 44", Steven Rhude It had to be pointed out to him.  That it was an early memory constituting a routine drive to a spot where a black wrought iron fence bordered a graveyard and an old church.   At the time it was still a country road. In the summer the road  tar heated up to create a sticky sensation when tire met surface. A tearing sound that intensified as the car sped up, or diminished as the car slowed down.  Eventually the road would become a six lane thorough fare intersecting a major suburban development. But he was too young to contemplate all that. All he could recall was the apple trees bordering the road and the "grounders" that ended up in the path of the on coming cars.  He recalled the sweet smell of the apples - those road apples, and the subsequent transfer to another vehicle.    Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS