Steven Rhude - Paintings/Drawings

Rearrangement, Drawing Book detail - Rearrangement, drawing book Rearrangement detail detail The other day I went to an art supply store to buy a sketch book. I didn't feel comfortable with what I saw - everything was so... neat and impersonal. Who sketches anyways? Why don't they call them idea books, or thinkin' papers. Sketchin' reminds me of that red and gray Etch-a-sketch box given to me as a child years ago. So, I went home and poured a glass of wine and took out Gerald Ferguson's Standard Corpus of English Usage...  I used it as a conceptual  door stop for years.  Not anymore. Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

Road Apples, oil on canvas, 40" x 44", Steven Rhude It had to be pointed out to him.  That it was an early memory constituting a routine drive to a spot where a black wrought iron fence bordered a graveyard and an old church.   At the time it was still a country road. In the summer the road  tar heated up to create a sticky sensation when tire met surface. A tearing sound that intensified as the car sped up, or diminished as the car slowed down.  Eventually the road would become a six lane thorough fare intersecting a major suburban development. But he was too young to contemplate all that. All he could recall was the apple trees bordering the road and the "grounders" that ended up in the path of the on coming cars.  He recalled the sweet smell of the apples - those road apples, and the subsequent transfer to another vehicle.    Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS  

It's been very seldom that I've had the pleasure of showing work in Cape Breton, let alone in a space like this with such amazing aesthetics. The gallery at Inverness County Cultural Centre has a cathedral like design to it that is worth the effort for any artist. It also is quite malleable and makes an installation a pure pleasure.  It was great to be an assistant to the chief technician (John) who made the task so easy. The guy's a pro! Thanks to Director Kaye Robertson for making today so much fun and also so easy.  Here are a few shots taken while working on the installation. Can't wait to see it fully lit and detailed. I'll document the show after the opening on August 30th. Looking forward to it. Oh ya, happy 10th anniversary Inverness County Cultural Centre! Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS    

Five people were on a beach experiencing the ocean and sky. The first person looked at the sea, but he did not hear the tern crying in the sun. The second person knelt down and felt the sand, but did not taste the salt air on her tongue. The third person wore shoes and liked to collect beach stones, but did not feel the beach sand between his toes. The fourth person had a blackberry and took pictures of the sun set, but she did not smell the eel grass along the shore. The fifth person heard a ballad being sung in the distance, but did not see the missing boats. Steven Rhude Wolfville, NS

Inverness County Centre for the Arts  August 30th - September 29th, 2013                           http://www.invernessarts.ca/ "You can't know who you are until you know where you are."    - Wendell Barry Inverness, Cape Breton   Steven Rhude: Finding Nova Scotia . The exhibition explores Rhude’s development as an painter after his move to Fox Island, (near Canso) Nova Scotia in 1990.  Rhude’s adopted province of Nova Scotia has inspired a number of unusual paintings by the artist over the last twenty three years. Featuring a hybrid space of objects and rural context, Rhude has consistently been creating engaging imagery with under currents of humor and irony, couched in the significance of place in contemporary society. Rhude is one of a small breed of social realists still practicing this form of expression in Nova Scotia.  Situated within his regional landscape, think of...

Ebb and Flow (Dory), o/c, 36"x 60", Steven Rhude The Romantics were prompted to seek exotic subjects and to travel to far off places. They failed to realize that, though the transcendental must involve the strange and unfamiliar, not everything strange or unfamiliar is transcendental. - Mark Rothko He mused on finding a place. When place is just really something that transcends the material - the arbitrary... like Boundaries. Boarders. Geography. Incorporation. Lunenburg. The picture plane. One point perspective. Paint brushes. Canvas. Big box stores. Dollar stores. Social position. Counterculture.  MapQuest... and Google Search. Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

A series of paintings exhibited in Inverness at the Inverness County Centre for the Arts. The Burning - 1, oil on panel, 24"x 24", Steven Rhude The Burning - 2, oil on panel, 24"x 24", Steven Rhude The Burning - 3, oil on panel, 24"x 24", Steven Rhude The Burning, - 4, oil on panel, 24"x 24", Steven Rhude The burning - 5, oil on panel, 24"x 24", Steven Rhude Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS