Steven Rhude - Paintings/Drawings

Monoliths, Beijing, oil on masonite, 11" x 14", Steven Rhude Landscape near Beijing, oil on masonite, 11" x 14", Steven Rhude Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS www.stevenrhudefineart.com

Man in a Room, oil on masonite, 11" x 14", Steven Rhude He is a man in a room. There is no room with a view for this man, unless one considers the view the man has of those that observe him at work, which is generally all day long. The room is also his studio, his work place, except unlike other artists, for this man there is no solitude, just the experience of being on display. Thus, the man in the room has learned to tune out the observers. The man in the room must lose himself in the room to endure the confines of the room. In his mind he develops the pursuit of a narrative, yet the observer knows not the unspecified interests of the man in the room; knows not what he is thinking. The observer can only observe. The observer knows not the man in the room's dreams, desires, and longings. The observer doesn't know  that, alone, the man in the room secretly ponders an experience he knows will never be fulfilled. It is more desirable than any other thin...

Colossus (Beijing), oil on masonite, 13" x 10", Steven Rhude Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS www.stevenrhudefineart.com

Leviathan (Beijing), oil on masonite, 12" x 13", Steven Rhude  The China Central Television Headquarters was under construction when I visited Beijing. I removed the cranes for simplification. It was later on referred to as "Big Pants" by locals.  "[CCTV is] a building that introduces new ways of conceptualising, liberating and realising structure that did not exist in China before, and of which I'm sure Chinese culture and Chinese architecture will benefit," he said. "It articulates the position and the situation of China." - Rem Koolhaas https://www.dezeen.com/2014/11/26/rem-koolhaas-defends-cctv-building-beijing-china-architecture/ Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS www.stevenrhudefineart.com

Forbidden City Tunnel, oil on panel, 8.5" x 9.5", Steven Rhude H "What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness? Parmenides posed this very question in the sixth century before Christ. He saw the world divided into pairs of opposites: light/darkness, fine/coarseness, warmth/cold, being/nonbeing. One half of the opposition he called positive (light, fineness, warmth, being), the other negative. We might find this division into positive and negative poles childishly simple, except for one difficulty: which one is positive, weight or lightness?" Milan Kundera - The Unbearable Lightness of Being Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS 

The Porcelain Painter, oil on panel, 13" x 12", Steven Rhude  "Art has its origins in the gods and immortals. There is no one who has heard or seen them." - Xie He I continue to harbour a private designation as to what is Art, and not a day goes by when I don't at some point ponder its mysterious equation. I've heard the implication that Art is everything and therefore Art is nothing, but that approach leaves me indifferent. There must be something to the idea that Art is a civilizing force - a symbolic language sprung from an immemorial past. Whatever it is, it continues to give me the chills when I do see it manifested in the flesh - before my very own eyes. Watching a woman paint vessels in Beijing with more skill than some art college graduates emerge with certainly got me thinking about her labour, and the beauty of her results. Day in and day out she paints, never the same way twice as one might imagine, but with an infinite variation of care ap...