Steven Rhude - Paintings/Drawings

  Boat on the Avalon (Brant's Cove Road), water painting, 22" x 30", Steven Rhude "If in Paradise you hear a voice directly from your maker, you still can't stay in Dead man's Cove they have no undertaker." - Newfoundland and Labrador Dictionary   You rattle and shake down coastal roads - they lean to the water as your body leans to the cliffs. Guard rails (if there are any) are more of an ornament now than a safety barrier. They cling to god knows what at 30 degree angles. You get out of the car and take in the view - there is no traffic, just the rumblings of distant thunder storms and some drizzle. You've done this before on other roads and in other communities. Another preliminary survey to gain information. Follow the road - it always ends at a wharf.   Approaching Upper Island Cove, photo Steven Rhude     Upper Island Cove. You don't drive out on the wharf. Cracked concrete, doors of storage units blown out, detritus from fishing gear and p...

 This is a virtual exhibition of paper bag drawings - nothing more / nothing less. You'll probably never see these works in a tangible setting - at least I hope not. Thankfully they will never descend to the vaults of curatorial limbo where much of our patrimony seeks the light of day. Conversely, if uncared for, the chalk deposits will lose their grip and the image will fall particle by particle, just like pollen drifting in the wind. The brown bag will eventually deteriorate too and assume its place in the compost heap, recycled into future growth. That actually may be the beauty of it - who knows?  No curators to pontificate with existential labels and historical revisionism. No changing or altering of titles by museological career gougers. No docents with prescribed interpretations. No awkward spaces and state sponsored catalogues, or thank you's for Canada Council's government grants fostering the arts. No museum membership drive at the front door,  no backroom board...

 Dory from the Burnt Point Shore, oil on canvas, 44" x 90", Steven Rhude   I'm a hopeless wharf rat. My addiction began in Canso with the government wharf. I would linger just to hear the chatter and check out the boats. On occasion I would marvel at the tuna that came in and the high stakes bidding wars for the great fish that would ensue. Japanese bidders with black limousines, and Louisiana sharks duking it out to supply high end sushi restaurants twenty four hours later. There was always the blood and tuna heads that remained to cement one's reality. But I loved the clutter and the mess.   Wharves are converging points of myth, industry, conference, politics, and strategy. Pictured here is a wharf at the base of a droke near Burnt Point, NL - in reality it's no longer in use, waiting for content and utility once again. The possibility exists. So in a way I brought it on back to life visually. All the objects in the painting are or were located in the regi...

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                     Portrait of Eddie Carvery, pastel on paper bag from Hennigers Market, Steven Rhude     "The man most directly — and rightly — credited with keeping the spirit of Africville alive is Irvine Carvery." - Stephen Kimber   What constitutes a protester? What constitutes a protest? When crowds gather in serious numbers they are often referred to as peaceful protesters, or conversely, an angry mob - we live in the post modern age of the  chronicled "mass protest", a physical scene of  protest transformed into a digital format, where individuality is suppressed by political branding, and the virtual collective expression. It is the time of massive change, and, as Bruce Mau so once described - the era of the "Spectacle." The strength of the spectacle is found in the original tangible numbers that bring leverage. That is the foundation. Eventually, police pre...

                                  Red Boat, Brigus Wharf, oil on canvas, 38" x 54", Steven Rhude In our times, I think there is beauty and relevance to the still image. If one is interested in composing a place, (as I am), then the realization comes to mind that there is no defining moment that captures an essential truth about the place that inspired it. Our experience of place is fluid, painting frames it as something still, and so conjecture about it naturally leads us to participate in a more probing narrative. This painting is a recollection of the Brigus wharf, yet, judging from the number of ordinary man made objects in the painting (a boat, garbage cans, table, paint roller, rags, paint brush, etc), it may also suggest a direction towards an autonomous still life; a random arrangement placed in the context o...