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Boats, modus operandi

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  “There is no such thing as passive vision… only active envisioning, that is, the creative construction of a vision from a certain perceptual perspective.”  - Donald Kuspit "I once had a dream a long time ago, in it I saw a boat falling off a cliff." -Steven Rhude Falling Boat, oil on canvas, 54" x 14", private collection When I moved to Nova Scotia in 1990, I vowed to avoid boats as subject matter . I did the same thing when the Harry Potter series came out ; eschew the popular, explore the enigmatic... but for what? and really - why?. However, individual biases dropped as reason prevailed, and conversely dreams intervened as reason devolved. We're all conscious of the cycle of life, and in it art always produces the requisite metaphor whether one makes pictures, or is provoked to ponder them. The boat is the alpha and omega of the Maritimes, and if one lives here long enough, it is accepted as a the big metaphor for ...
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Blue Hour

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                        Blue Hour: Abandoned Fish Plant, Rose Blanche, oil on canvas, 32" x 52", Steven Rhude I took the southwest shore road from Port aux Basque, past Isle aux Morts, Burnt Islands, and Diamond Cove, and then on to Rose Blanche... the end of the line. I noticed a wharf road and parked well away from it's crumbling structure. Looming is an industrial cathedral, now abandoned and in a state of decay. A place that was once a community monument to coastal prosperity and collectivity. I stood there for a while realizing I've had similar experiences like this, back in Sicily, or England, and closer to home where on the way to Halifax, the Windsor textile plant always brings on a feeling of melancholia. The Blue Hour constitutes twilight... that slippage between day and night that is briefly suspended. The sky spills over with ultramarine, cobalt, sapphire, even turquoise before merging with the warmth of the horizo...
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Sheltered, Woody Point

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                                                   Sheltered, Woody Point, oil on canvas, 32" x 52", Steven Rhude There's a darker nature to the western shore of NL. Hard to explain... but as a painter I sometimes feel I'm like a guy tampering with a tumbler lock, a decoder by nature. A place where if I return often enough things will open up. Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS
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Boswarlos

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                                                            Boswarlos, oil on canvas, 40" x 90", Steven Rhude I left the TransCanada at Stephenville and headed towards Lourdes, and yet Port aux Port Bay tugged at me. Boswarlos wasn't far so I thought, I'd double back and do the Cape St. George loop to Lourdes in an hour or so. Boswarlos has a t- junction: right means open coast, left is a dead end fishermen's track with shacks, trailers, and a couple strolling with their infant. I drove to the end and thought "would I or could I live here?' I got out of the car to stretch my legs and view the Gulf of St. Lawrence - perfection. From between the sheds a dog comes out towards me but at the time one measures caution, just as the dog probably was doing with me. Eventually we make friends and I promise 'T-junction' (my name for him) that if he ...
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Equilibrium

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 Equilibrium, Grates Cove,  oil on board, 14" x 18", Steven Rhude  The Avalon fires didn't reach the tip of the peninsula, but other communities were far less fortunate. Ochre Pit Cove where I've stayed on occasion lost numerous houses and out buildings. Fire has an aggressive yet unpredictable logic - why one place is spared and another becomes embers and ashes is anyone's guess. I've heard the saying don't cry for something that can't cry back - still the summer of 2025 has left many struggling to regain some kind of equilibrium. Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS
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The House Where Nobody Lives

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                           The House Where Nobody Lives, oil on panel, 24" x 24", Steven Rhude " Well, the paint is all cracked, it was peeled off of the wood The papers were stacked on the porch where I stood And the weeds had grown up just as high as the door There were birds in the chimney and an old chest of drawers Looks like no one will ever come back. to the house where nobody lives." - TW The house in art; so many visual depictions... well for me it reflects the life cycle. It's a tactile artifact that elicits the internal geography of two individuals. Sadly at times humans outlive love. We are born, live, love, even hate, and then die. The strange thing is that objects often outlive our lives and also obliquely provide a testament to our spirit - whether our love endured or not. If this house were a map, and we could enter, we could chart our way around it from a domestic perspective. However, most symboli...
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Two Women, a Priest , and a Goat

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                                       Two Women from Can't See Cove, oil on panel, 24" x 38", Steven Rhude The story goes there were two Methodist women about to marry. It's of course Shakespearian in nature since their religion differed from their Catholic husbands to be. Confronted by the Catholic priest they were told if they didn't convert they would each be turned into a goat. The priest was challenged to carry out his threat with the reasoning that if he could change them into a goat he could easily change them back into women. The premise being if the priest was successful they would gladly change their religion. Ah, the competition among clerics for converts. Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS  
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