Steven Rhude - Paintings/Drawings

                                    Briar Island's End, Grand Passage Lighthouse, oil on masonite, 16" x 20", Steven Rhude The overtone of the title implies the setting of the sun on a crystal like day. Briar Island is two ferry's in, or if you happen to be one of the two hundred or so residents that live there, two ferry's out. When my son and I arrived at the Briar Island Lodge to check in for the night, it was completely empty. No staff, no restaurant chef, no one to show us to our room. A call to the manager, who wasn't on the island, connected me with a local resident who gave us a room key and said "enjoy the lodge - it's all yours!" Later that evening, a dirt road led us to the north tip of the island where the Grand passage Lighthouse is located. There's also the Westport Search and Rescue Station's presence to remind one of the perils of the sea. I've always been fascinated with the concur...

                                         The Last Canadian, oil on canvas, 38" x 52", Steven Rhude "You are a big country. You are the kindest country in the world. You are like a really nice apartment over a meth lab." - Robin Williams, Comedian As a comedian, Robin Williams was aware of the use of disparate elements in art, whether it was words or pictures - it was grist for his occupational mill. These disparate elements have been around a while, and were employed in the existentialist philosophy of Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, shaping a twentieth century world that became more absurd than understandable. Today, we are constantly confronted in life and art, by artists with characteristics in their work that are incomparable and indeed appear at first nonsensical -  but the ritual is far from  meaningless.  Well, it may go without saying, we are not the k...

                                      White Ghost Shed, Digby Neck, oil on canvas, 40" x 60", Steven Rhude "In the history of art, white isn't as pure as we think. Over the course of history it's been loaded with ideologies that are divisive and at times even dangerous, so dangerous in fact, that white may just be the darkest colour of them all."  - James Fox, British Art Historian  The story goes that Whistler and his painting of Joanna Hiffernan, that young woman in white, standing on a bear rug, changed the course of modern art. After Whistler, white was never the same, and eventually became the cold, unwelcoming, and exclusive colour of the artistic elite. Public galleries today still emit the residue of the white cube that marked twentieth century austerity and minimalism. A cultural despiritualization. Gazing through the window of a fishing shed, while Sam and I were waiting fo...

        Moon over the Droke, Job's Cove, oil on masonite, 24" x 34", Steven Rhude What's in a name of a community - in this case a lot: Devil’s Cove, 29th of May, 1812 The following is from "Place Names of the Avalon Peninsula of the Island of Newfoundland" (1971) by E.R. Seary, which also states that this petition was published in "'The Royal Gazette and Newfoundland Advertiser' on 11 June 1812 and subsequently". We the undersigned Inhabitants, conceiving the utility and benefits resulting from an early conception and sense of Religion instilled into the tender minds of our Children, and of the rising generation, do unanimously resolve to change and alter the barbarous, execrable, and impious name of "Devil's Cove", into the ancient, venerable, and celebrated name of "Job's Cove" ; and that the public News-paper of St. John's will publish these our resolutions three different times, so that every person in t...

                              An Odd House, Bonavista, oil on Birch panel. 12" x 12", Steven Rhude What really constitutes an allegory? When I encountered this house in Bonavista I naturally wondered about its hidden meaning, its spirit, and all the psycho/social configurations that accompany a dwelling that is one third stripped bare of its clothing, or outer cladding if we are to respect the tradesman use of the term. Revealing the underlayers of mind and mentality, it was once configured a home with parents and children that fished. Nonetheless it is by appearance an odd house. One rarely encounters a dwelling in such an indecisive state.  But this is just one thing - the health of another house, that is a resource based industry is another. Both houses were intentionally  connected. A cemented relationship within its neighbourhood - the sea.  Is it just an illusion for us to visually pass over,...

                                            Custer's Head Road, oil on canvas, 40" x 90", Steven Rhude     Timeline Hant's Harbour 1697 – Abbe Baudoin reports that there are four houses at Hant's Harbour. 1801 – Five families are listed as living in Hant's Harbour. 1813 – T.E. and Mary Pelley die. The gravestone recording this still stands. 1820s – The first known church is built in the community. 1830s – The population consists of 400 people. 1847 – Ten vessels carrying 271 men are engaged in the  seal hunt . 1853 – Eight vessels totaling 767 tons carry 294 men to the seal hunt. 1868 – 1870 – A second and much larger church is built, serving the circuit until 1907 when it is destroyed to build a new one. 1871 – Lovell's Newfoundland Dictionary lists 81 of the 104 householders in Hant's Harbour as fisherman. Two others are listed as farmers. 1880s – The population...

  Two recent works in a series of florals and the sea.                                                               Ocean Rose, oil on masonite, 23.5" x 19", Steven Rhude                                          Tulips and Buoy, Atlantic Spring, oil on canvas, 40" x 30", Emma Butler Gallery