Two Innocents (Cape Spear Barrens)

 

                           Two Innocents (Cape Spear Barrens), oil on canvas, 36" x 48", Steven Rhude


I've always believed it is important to lack the ability to make the distinction between history and the present. One informs the other in painting, so the distinction needs to be suppressed at times. This work started out as an appreciation of the Cape Spear Barrens in all its moodiness. I gestured some figures in with the intent that their ambiguous forms could easily be painted out, and the work would go safely back to a more or less factual account of a hike I took along this melancholic barren place of natural wonder.

 To be uneducated and "innocent" of worldly things today is a risky proposition. However, to have acquired knowledge of the natural world as it can be passed down through a generation or two can amount to survival if you originate from an out port in Newfoundland. The painting's title comes from a novel by Michael Crummy. He can leave you unsettled to say the least, with a narrative of a brother and sister (whose parents have died) that come to terms with their maturity, and who/what to trust in a world that is as ruthless as the land. So I retained the figures and left the distinction of history out... because they existed, and they're out there still.


Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

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