Steven Rhude - Paintings/Drawings

                                                 Cape Spear (Still Life), oil on canvas, 24" x 36", Steven Rhude You're not one to take a building at face value, that's why you always go around back just to see what's lurking there. So you try to evoke the atmosphere or emotional resonance of it's location by stepping inside the mind of 'the building' and the mind of 'the place', and by extension, yourself the painter. There is nothing really still about the life at Cape Spear. Even though the day is idyllic and nature has called a ceasefire for now, you know when the wind whips, and the gales come with unimaginable force - alone, you would probably cower like a spooked dog. So the title of this work is definitely a bit of an oxymoron. However, you put the day in your pocket and take it home. Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS   

                                                       Brigus Rock (The Stoic), oil on canvas, 36"  x48", Steven Rhude Being  stoic  is being calm and almost without any emotion. When you're  stoic , you don't show what you're feeling and you also accept whatever is happening. The noun  stoic  is a person who's not very emotional. The adjective  stoic  describes any person, action, or thing that seems emotionless and almost blank. Mr. Spock, from the oldest  Star Trek  show, was a great example of a stoic person: he tried to never show his feelings. Someone yelling, crying, laughing, or glaring is not stoic. Stoic people calmly go with the flow and don't appear to be shook up by much .  The hike to Brigus Light is arduous and not for the faint of heart. In unusually hot weather, and poorly equipped, I seriously underestimated the longevity of the hike ( I was told it was about forty minutes each way). On the way back, I encountered a large rock. Thinking o

                                                        Battery Sheds, oil on canvas, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude At the entrance to St. John's harbor, on the slopes of Signal hill, a neighborhood called the 'Battery' is located. Reminiscent of a pell-mell kind of out port, fishermen sheds and houses clung to the slopes like sea birds in all sorts of weather. A google aerial view will now show that gentrification has transformed it since the days when it was home to 'chain rock', a chain that connected it to Fort Amherst, in order to prevent the entry of enemy ships into St. John's harbor. Later it was replaced by an anti-submarine net as warfare was modernized with WW2.                                      Battery Wharf, oil on canvas, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude I still marvel at the Battery, knowing full well it will never be entirely gentrified. It's a time out of mind place where one can easily get lost. Thankfully there will always be some