Steven Rhude - Paintings/Drawings

Boy With Fossil, oil on panel, 24"x 48", Steven Rhude, private collection Probably the largest jigsaw puzzle he could think of. At least it looked that way from a distance. Two families with heads bowed solemnly, like an Edvard Munch image - treading along a stretch of coast line called Blue Beach. They walked like this, apparently not because of some serious ritual, or to check their footing, but to scan the stones, for that important piece of the puzzle. Hopefully one containing a mystery millions of years old. 'Check it out.'  It was a micro chip, in the truest sense. A innocuous piece of slate derived from larger pieces, and larger stones, and a large land mass, and an even larger coastline - and of course the big blue sea. Embedded in the stone a blackish impression. Reminiscent of flakes of material he once put in some paper he made years ago. Like a mold, it was safely secured by the stone's solidity.  He asked the boy what it was he had f

Dory on the Avalon, oil on canvas, 45.5"x 65.5", Steven Rhude, private collection Above the Avalon it's the end of time.   You can see the soaring preachers, and hear their endless whine. It's the year of the end of cities; since the month and day make twelve,       great excuse to escape the text; or even let go of the plow. The prodigal son returned home in rags,    all his plan's had to be shelved. His father welcomed him back, then the predictionist took a bow.    It's the month of the end of community; since the day and the hour make twelve,   we stumbled upon a Nail House in a road, resisting us once                          twice,                           three times,                                               Just the bones left,  of a once humble abode. Above the Avalon it's the end of time.   You can see the marching preachers, in an endless line. It's the day of the end of landscape; since the hour and t

Every portrait painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter... it is the painter, who on the colourless canvas reveals himself.                                                                                   Oscar Wilde A Meeting of the School Trustees, Robert Harris, 1885, National Gallery of Canada  “In and for each Province the legislature may exclusively make law as in relation to education.”  Constitution Act 1867 Raising two children who attend public school is in itself a joy and a challenge. Each day brings with it small victories, and at times concerns for the big picture. The Welsh born Canadian painter Robert Harris must of had some concerns too. What would he have thought of the problems looming over one of our most important democratic rights today? That is, the role of the Public School Trustee and Local School Board Democracy. In Nova Scotia, where I live, much has changed with that basic right. School board members are sti

Shed and Water, oil on board, 20"x 24" Steven Rhude, Gallery 78 Updated April17th , 2023 I thought I'd have a little bit of fun and interview Steven since he's so opinionated anyways. We are always discussing art together, so we went about it like this. In this post, I would write a question down and Steven would respond that same day. After a few weeks, the following interview is the result.                                                                                                  Simone Labuschagne SL: So you call yourself a Realist - what is Realism to you? SR: It's complicated. But I used to think a long time ago that Realism was just this thing where you held a mirror up to nature and copied it. I still hear that definition used in public gallery talks now and then. But we're all children when we start, and the mirror is a convenient reason, but limited in scope. Later, I then realised that nature had depth, a greater kind of depth than j

"No escape is possible for the non-figurative artist; he must march towards the consequence of his art." Piet Mondrian "Art is essentially about the memory and that is necessarily something which deals with how we encode experience and how that experience can be relived."                                                                                                    Guido Molinari Cantwell's Fence, Cape Spear Primary, oil on canvas, 38"x59", Steven Rhude One would expect to find a fence demarcating  the most easterly point of North America. It has taken on some reincarnations owing to rot and deterioration, restoration, and eventually a replica of the one present when Cape Spear was a working lighthouse and home to the light keepers family. It is currently being repaired as a result of damage incurred from a hurricane. Realistically, the fence is pristine white, with the unseen light house providing the traditional red colour for co

The Racetrack, oil, 1890s, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Cleveland Museum of Art May 14th, 1888 As a reporter, one of his skills was to eavesdrop. Alone and listening in on the conversation between the scruffy recluse and the waiter, eating his meal quietly while feigning to read the paper, no one would suspect anything. If they glanced over they would probably take him for a travelling salesman, not a reporter baiting the hook. The long bearded guy had to be the artist who often dined alone, an eccentric according to art dealers and the few patrons, that helped prep him ... for what? An article about a slob who already, in his estimation, was an incurable romantic, a reputed mystic; one whose paintings looked like they were created using as much tobacco juice as he did oil paint.  He really didn't know. All he knew was that he seemed to be going backwards into a romantic pool of... of... What kind of headline could he use? literature Inspires Painting  How boring could that

Our Canadian pioneer of modernism, David Milne, had the idea, and actually did a painting of one of his favorite places with his painting gear in the fore ground. It is a theme that has been continued and appreciated especially for those artists where 'place' resonates with both aesthetic and social meaning. Buoys on the Edge of Burnt Point, oil on canvas, 38"x 50", Steven Rhude Although this painting excludes my painting gear, and introduces the buoys instead (a figurative object I have come to strongly identify with), it is none the less a painting place I hope to return to more than once or twice in the future. It is a great spot to go and be suspended in time, and find union with the ocean, tides, horizon and of course - the sky. Steven Rhude Wolfville, NS

For an uncertain period of time, we humans walk through life in a suit of skin .  However, our existance is also comprised of an inner life as well. Much time and thought has been spent determining just what that is. The form of expression called  Realism  allows for me an elastic means to explore this equation. Whatever this inner life is to us, the ability to transcribe it outwardly through representational painting, has preoccupied western man within a spiritual, psychological, social, political, and aesthetic framework. The mature principles of Realism have endured and expanded over the last five hundred years because the artists practicing them have been able to find the necessary metaphors through which the world - externally, could be made comprehensible; resulting in a personal vision of a constantly changing global culture and society, of which we are all influenced greatly. In my opinion, post modernism, through numerous mutations, has lost the ability to do this effec

I'm pleased to announce my new representation in St. John's Newfoundland with the Emma Butler Gallery. Please check out the gallery on line. http://www.emmabutler.com/ Battery Shed on a Road,  oil on canvas, 32"x 42", Emma Butler Gallery Red Boat, Ochre Pit Cove, oil on canvas, 29.5"x38", Emma Butler Gallery Buoys on the Edge of Burnt Point, oil on canvas, 38"x50", Steven Rhude Cantwell's Fence, Cape Spear Primary, oil on canvas, 38"x59", Steven Rhude Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS.

Last Dogs Hung, oil on canvas, 34"x48", Steven Rhude                           Intervention Argyle Fine Art, Halifax, September 14th to October 2nd Opening: Friday, September 14th - 7pm.  1559 Barrington Street, Halifax. tel. 902.425.9456  Resistance - Last Dogs Hung Contemporary Realist Painting continues to evolve largely outside of the mainstream  establishment. Although championed by independent artists and galleries, a new generation of  Realist painters have been largely ignored by an artistic management intent on blurring the boundary between art and life - what T.S. Elliot referred to as “the dissociation of sensibility”. Today  (with a few exceptions), humanism and emotion combined with the innovation required to carry  out the creation of a Realist painting, have generally been overlooked. Possibly because of an art  establishment more concerned with their own shifting hagiography and the elevation of  spectacle. As a painter, I have noted in the p

Boy with Hay Bale, oil on canvas, 27"x37", Steven Rhude The search for community is a creative process of constructing what Castells calls 'resistance identities' which oppose the 'legitimized identities' constructed for us in the context of civil society and its state apparatuses.'     Michael Corbett - Learning to Leave, The Irony of Schooling in a Coastal Community, Fernwood Publishing  The guest analyst referred to the region as ' a resource based, industrial life style driven into the ground.' A world of clear cuts and   Monsanto. But the boy recalled his Dad saying otherwise. Something like a tangled and interwoven world of layers stood out in his memory. Starting from scratch - wind, seed, and all compressed into an image of iconic growth. That romantic folk legend said something about how he 'gave it up and went to town'. But that wasn't on his mind as a child. In fact learning to leave was furthest from his min