Avalon: Short Stories in Paint

New Paintings by Steven Rhude

Colonel H. M. Drummond was a highly respected Ornithologist. In December 1852, eight years after the great Auk was supposedly extinct, Henry was sailing home for Christmas when he spotted what he thought was a great Auk off the coast of Newfoundland. The following year a dead bird was allegedly found washed up on the shores of Trinity Bay on the eastern side of Newfoundland. This account is from Errol Fuller's book The Great Auk. Science has little patience for ghosts and Henry had no camera or eye witness to back up his claim - only his word and vision.

In painting, realistic fiction involves a story where the basic setting or events could believably happen in the context of the real world. With the advent of modern art, formalist ideas resulted in narrative being frowned upon. However, coded references to social issues or cultural history were still commonplace. Just think of Picasso's Guernica. As a painter living in postmodern times I've found this idea compelling and thus have explored it through some of the paintings in this show.

Years ago, Ernest Hemingway wrote a six word story on the basis of an advertisement that one may encounter in a newspaper classified section. It goes like this: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Taken literally nothing is contained in the story but a straightforward fact. However, what is implied could fill volumes.

Steven Rhude, 2024

Age of Innocence, Salmon Cove Oil on panel, 13 x 20	Battery Sheds Oil on canvas, 24 x 24	Battery Wharf Oil on canvas, 24 x 24
Boy with Tree Limb, Brigus Rock Oil on canvas, 36 x 24	Brigus Rock (The Stoic) Oil on canvas, 36 x 48	Buoys and Paint Oil on canvas, 25 x 28
Cape Spear (Still Life) Oil on canvas, 24 x 36	Caplin Days Oil on canvas, 38 x 46	Custer's Head Road Oil on canvas, 40 x 90
Dory at Madrocks Oil on canvas, 38 x 41	From Red Head Cove Oil on canvas, 30 x 64	Heart's Content (Iris and Buoy) Oil on canvas, 21 x 21
Heart's Desire (Boxes) Oil on canvas, 23 x 60	Henry Drummond's Vision Oil on panel, 24 x 24	Man in a Boat Oil on panel, 26 x 18
Moon Over the Droke Oil on panel, 24 x 33	Out Port Girls, Bonavista Light Oil on canvas, 36 x 24	Study of a Fish Plant Worker Oil on canvas, 20 x 33
The Fortunate Isles (Two Boats, Salmon Cove) Oil on canvas, 38.5 x 58	The Innocents (Cape Spear Barrens) Oil on canvas, 36 x 48	Two Flags, Broad Cove Oil on panel, 11 x 14
Woman and Black Lab Oil on panel, 11 x 14