Steven Rhude - Paintings/Drawings

The Poacher's Signal, o/b, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude Sold

River of Democritus - The Laughing Philosopher, o/b, 36" x 48", Steven Rhude Available through the artist. stevenrhude@ns.sympatico.ca

River of Heraclitus, oil on board, 36" x 48", Steven Rhude Available through the artist. stevenrhude@ns.sympatico.ca

Fish Scale in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, o/p, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude Available through the artist.  stevenrhude@ns.sympatico.ca 

The Final Cut, o/p, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude

The Off Shore Life, o/p, 20" x 24", Steven Rhude Sold  

Between the Lights, 24" x 24", o/p, Steven Rhude Available through the artist. stevenrhude@ns.sympatico.ca

Olympia with her Buoys, 44" x 62", oil on canvas, Steven Rhude For sale through the artist. stevenrhude@ns.sympatico.ca  (currently on exhibit at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Yarmouth)

Boat in the Beaverbrook, oil on canvas, 36" x 48", Steven Rhude Available through the artist.  stevenrhude@ns.sympatico.ca

Watermelon, o/p, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude  Painting for sale through the artist. stevenrhude@ns.sympatico.ca "Watermelon is a word that tells you what is wrong with the climate change debate. For some libertarians, it is the insult that expresses what greenies and climate scientists are really up to. Behind all the acronyms and the jargon, they say, is a conspiracy to promote a nakedly political aim – anti-big business; anti-free market; pro-tax increases. In short, green on the outside but red on the inside." - James Randerson There is a power to still life painting that will always prevail - that is the way metaphor can energize a discourse with something a simple and apparently as innocent as a watermelon. I find it fascinating that certain colours have been applied to political issues (think flags). "Greens, reds, blues, pinks", the list will expand as our social views congeal. Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

Circles of Rembrandt, Wolfville, o/p, 24" x 50", Steven Rhude  Painting for sale through the artist. Inspired by the mysterious circles used by Rembrandt in his famous self portrait, the sun and moon in a Wolfville setting strikes me as a sensible place to start. When an artist co-opts the use of the circle, not only as an aesthetic, but a symbol in western art ranging from the social order to the heavens, Vasari's famous proverb comes to mind. "...Pope Benedict IX of Treviso sent one of his courtiers into Tuscany to see what sort of man was Giotto, and of what kind his works, having designed to have some pictures made in S. Pietro. This courtier, coming in order to see Giotto and to hear what other masters there were in Florence excellent in painting and in mosaic, talked to many masters in Siena. Then, having received drawings from them, he came to Florence, and having gone into the shop of Giotto, who was working, declared to him the mind of the Pope...

Installation photo of AGNS Yarmouth show "Capture". Works from left to right:  "Olympia with her Buoys", Steven Rhude,  "Parade", Susan Garvey, "Self Portrait", Richard Davis Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

Steven Rhude, Wolfville, Nova Scotia

August Cod, 51.5" x 39", oil on canvas, Steven Rhude Detail Recent commission. Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

The following works will be in the Secord Gallery exhibition: Realism Redux The Home Coming, o/c, 33" x 50", Steven Rhude Pleasantville, o/b, 24" x 48", Steven Rhude Telephone, o/b, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude Portrait of Caitlyn Jenner, o/b, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude Cathedral, o/b, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

Obsolescence, o/b, 24" x 24", sold, Private Collection Sold

Below are the 5 works I have included in the Making Things Matter show. Full colour catalog available from Gallery 78. Nice essay included by Leopold Kowolik. Reception: Gallery 78 October 30th, 2015  5:00 PM to 7:00 PM - show continues to November 22nd, 2015 Location: Gallery 78 Phone Number: 506 454-5192 Address: 796 Queen Street Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada E3B 1C6 http://www.gallery78.com/ After the Storm, o/b, 24" x 48", Steven Rhude Double Bind, o/b, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude Ship of Theseus, o/b, 24" x 48", Steven Rhude Splitting Table, o/b, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude Post Cod Beach House, o/c, 36" x 48", Steven Rhude The Textures of Nature Stephen May, David McKay, Steven Rhude, Réjean Roy, Stephen Scott Nature seems so obvious. It’s right there; we live in it and we are it. We say ‘naturally’ when the point is self-proving. And yet what exactly is nature? Where is it? What does it l...

Olympia with her Buoys, oil on canvas, 44" x 62", Steven Rhude This work will be on display at the AGNS Western Branch Gallery in Yarmouth, NS for the Capture, Nova Scotia Realism show. Opening November 21st, 2015 and continues to May, 2016. Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

Ferry Table, Towards Argentia, o/p, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude Painting for sale through the artist. stevenrhude@ns.sympatico.ca Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

 Buoys and Film, o/p, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude,   Painting for sale through the artist. stevenrhude@ns.sympatico.ca “That’s what we all live for, isn’t it?” she says. “We go to work and we come home and watch a movie or a TV show, we play a song or look on our walls to admire the artwork or maybe we’re wearing something by a talented designer… There was such a groundswell of support for the film industry from the Nova Scotia public that I believe that people here do love and appreciate the arts. Now, we just need to find a way forward.” -  Jackie Torrens http://halifaxmag.com/cover/whats-next-for-nova-scotias-film-industry/ Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

Splitting Table, o/p, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude, Gallery 78 Sold Pretty well every wharf I visited in Newfoundland had a splitting table, where during the recreational groundfish fishery it received more than its normal measure of use. Embedded in the wood is the stains of countless fish, blood, and their guts - colour and matter as accumulated culture and history. Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS  

Double Bind, o/p, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude, Gallery78 "I think in Atlantic Canada, because of what happened in the decades following Confederation, there is a culture of defeat that we have to overcome... Atlantic Canada's culture of defeat will be hard to overcome as long as Atlantic Canada is actually physically trailing the rest of the country." ( New Brunswick Telegraph Journal , May 29, 2002) - Stephen Harper Atlantic Canadians may never know just what exactly Harper meant by a "culture of defeat", other than the apparent reference to overcoming a defeatist attitude is essential for economic prosperity - something obvious to most people involved in even the smallest community initiative. We may also never know whether Harper has any views on what culture is in this age of mass communication, since he is indeed a product of mass communications media. He is as we now know standing on the other side of what can only be called a huge chasm ...

Bread Line, o/p, 20" x 24", Gallery 78 Food and Art Oil Painting Class with Steven Rhude September 22nd  to November 10th  (Tuesdays, 7- 9pm) This eight week workshop examines the role of “Food” in art using “Wolfville’s local market” as an information source. Working through the lens of psychology and techniques inherent in the tradition of representational painting, students will explore why food is so important a subject today for contemporary expression. Using photographic sources, our purpose is to develop the ability to see, perceive, inscribe, and translate experience as it relates to food and a composition of the student’s choice. The student will learn to build a stretcher frame from scratch, stretch and prime canvas, and enhance their knowledge of the representational legacy of food in art. The workshop will be taught by Steven Rhude Note: Open to all skill levels. Materials not included. Participants will be provided with a materia...

Ship of Theseus from Grates Cove, o/p, 24" x 48", Steven Rhude, Gallery78 The ship of Theseus , also known as Theseus' paradox , is a thought experiment that raises the question of whether an object which has had all of its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object . The paradox is most notably recorded by Plutarch in Life of Theseus from the late first century. Plutarch asked whether a ship which was restored by replacing each and every one of its wooden parts remained the same ship. The paradox had been discussed by more ancient philosophers such as Heraclitus , Socrates , and Plato prior to Plutarch's writings; and more recently by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke . Several variants are known, including the "grandfather's axe", which has had both its head and handle replaced. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus Steven Rhude

Blue Moon, 0/p, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude Post Landscape Near Caning, o/p, 24" x 48", Steven Rhude Far from the Sea, o/p, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude It's true on the one hand they are just bales of hay bound up in a field near a small place called Caning. But on the other hand, it may also be true they are linked with the moon and the sun, rolling across the fields as the moon and sun roll across the sky. Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

Lightning, oil on panel, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude Also true for painting. "The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give and take. Just long enough for you to level your camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box." - Henri Cartier - Bresson

After the Storm, o/p, 24" x 48", Steven Rhude, Gallery78 Coastal storms can be horrific. They can dislodge the faith of an individual and through repeated dreams bring one back to the very event that may have caused great damage to an area or community. I still dream on occasion of a storm that struck our coast years ago. Rising water, unimaginable winds, thrashing waves all still pound away at the subconscious in the same way they probably influenced John of Patmos when he scripted his perfect storm. Detail But there is also the aftermath. Sheds dislodged from their original location and objects strewn about; objects that seemed to have been relocated from our original fit with the landscape by the forces of something other than just mother nature. Power outages and the requisite alternatives of wood heat and oil lamps for those without generators, are employed. Inventories are taken, and stories of the effects of the storm move up and down the community shore...

Pleasantville, oil on panel, 24" x 48", Steven Rhude For a while now I have wanted to do a painting which summed up my feelings about the decline of rural Nova Scotia. This one comes close since the gas station is so integral to commerce and the transference of goods. Gas stations are a little like parking garages, they are all mostly self serve experiences now that leave one pondering existential situations between place "A" and place "B".  Encountering an abandoned rural gas station with a Yard Jockey perched atop a giant quasi Rubix Cube, I recall  thinking what it is I stopped to look at, or perhaps more to the point, through looking, is there a process or set of rules to  follow in solving a post modern problem such as this one. I don't believe there is. Hopper's gas station paintings are alive with people and his brand of solitude evokes a transition. Pleasentville can't do this. The problem is not black and white, and the rules k...

Waiting, Old Perlican, o/b, 24" x 24",$3,000.00, Steven Rhude Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

Portrait of Caitlyn Jenner, oil on board, 24" x 24", $3,000.00, Steven Rhude Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

Post Cod Beach House, oil on canvas, 36" x 48", Steven Rhude, Gallery78 I've learned over the years not to be spoon fed. Strip away the superficial associations that cling to certain objects like a weathered fishing shack or a fish box, and new worlds appear. Objects have always embodied certain qualities for me. Morandi's bottles are not just bottles. So why should a fishing buoy just be a fishing buoy? There is a whole world of icons outside our traditional Judeo - Christian appreciation. Call em secular icons, or whatever. But they exist and have etched their way into our culture as Maritimers. And they will go on existing in our lexicon of symbols no matter how they may be branded by marketeers. What may be seen as repetition could also be seen as diversity - yet subtle with respect to a salient range of objects depicted. To put it simply, the table top in still life painting is a stage, the objects are actors, and the composition conveys performa...

Boat and Buoy Adrift, oil on canvas, 30" x 42", Steven Rhude,  $4,500.00,  Gallery, Sold adrift / əˈdrɪft / adjective, adverb ( postpositive ) 1. floating without steering or mooring; drifting 2. without purpose; aimless 3. ( informal ) off course or amiss: the project went adrift Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 Cite This Source Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS 

Reaching Brigus Light, o/c, 40" x 60", $7,500.00, Emma Butler Gallery This painting is now available at the Emma Butler Gallery in St. John's, Newfoundland. Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

If Truth Be Told" A group show of Nova Scotia Realism Steven Rhude Arnaud Beghin Anna Syperek If Truth Be Told Nova Scotia Realism Saturday, June 13th 2-4 pm Please join us this Saturday, June 13th from 2-4 pm for the opening of "If Truth Be Told".  Several of the artists will be in attendance. What is 'real' or 'true' is as varied as the individual seeking it. "If Truth Be told" is a group show of realist work in a variety of styles and media by renowned Nova Scotia Artists: Alan Bateman; Arnaud Beghin; Alex Colville; Peter Gough; Steven Rhude and Anna Syperek. The show runs until July 11th.  We look forward to welcoming you. Harvest Gallery 462 Main St. Wolfville, NS www.harvestgallery.ca Peter Gough Alan Bateman Alex Colville ...