Steven Rhude - Paintings/Drawings

Portrait of Callum (The Hobbiton, New Zealand), o/c, 36" x 48" private collection   Here's a recent commissioned oil portrait of an Acadia University student. “I come from under hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led. And through the air, I am he that walks unseen…I am the clue-finder, the web-cutter, the stinging fly. I was chosen for the lucky number…I am he that buries his friends alive and drowns them and draws them alive again from the water. I came from the end of a bag, but no bag went over me…I am the friend of bears and the guest of eagles. I am Ringwinner and Luckwearer; and I am barrel-rider.” - Bilbo the Brave Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

http://www.harvestgallery.ca/ Girl and Valley, oil on masonite, 34" x 48", Steven Rhude We've all had that feeling more or less of returning home. There are signifiers for those who are familiar with, and travel the traditional routes... like in our case when a highway approach shifts under a diagonal bridge as Blomidon comes into view - it can still mesmerize as one kindles a cultural relevance from a distance, of a sliver of clay that has commanded so much from us. However, there is also the idea of the valley as a new home to someone indescribable... she could be from Ethiopia for all we know, as she ponders what... a biennial which grows, in its second year, from a taproot (the carrot) to a height of two to four feet? It is by all means radical. Her language has been eclipsed, but not lost to her subconscious, that is a field with Queen Ann's lace and the articulation of a distant hillside. She has several siblings now and is comfortably at home.