Two Flags, Broad Cove

                                         Two Flags, Broad Cove. oil on masonite, 11" x 14", Steven Rhude



 It's really a tiny painting - about 11" x 14" in scale. It depicts a remote cove on the Avalon peninsula where a few fishermen live and congregate. They are outliers and the flags suggests something about their societal disposition.

They live far away from the world of European art, and a cultural frame of reference excessively imbued with historical  discoveries. They don't think about examples of scale that reign from Michelangelo's colossal Sistine chapel to Vermeer's micro tiny Lacemaker, where it's Dutch frame may account  for more per square inch aesthetic than the work it encases. They are immune to this logic. They fish, cut wood, drive Dodge Ram trucks and are no doubt connected to the internet. They go to the Lions club, socialize, recite poetry, tell stories and dance.They risk their lives every day.

However, for now, you're comfortable in your wagon as you chart your way through one community at a time, thinking about possible paintings and the scale you must concern yourself with when you return to the studio. Some demand a larger voice, while smaller works echo the ghost of  Morandi, as he whispers in your ear to moderate the scale of the subject. One work requires a larger format while another becomes a small communion of shapes to be zeroed in on. 

But they don't paint, yet they know their cove, and how a pyramid roof top echoes a coastal configuration. Aesthetics is in their blood. They tell me: "A shed may not be beautiful, but it can be beautifully realized".

Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS





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