Brush and canvas, shape and form: Steven Rhude’s recent compositions in new exhibit
July 2026
Migration, Point Riche Light (oil on canvas, 32in x 52in)
“I’ve often pondered what it would be like to have someone take me on a journey around Newfoundland blindfolded, and how I would process the place, its people, the language. And when I returned to the studio, removed the blindfold, and picked up a brush to consider the experience – what would come of it? A camera is to some extent blind, which is why I use it as a tool – it detects only shapes and form, the colour of objects, and it does it in a millisecond. It does not see, and is blind to life, that is the purview of the photographer. Photographers take pictures, and painters make pictures – both are different, but compatible art forms.
Moon Tide, Fisherman’s House, Port au Basques (oil on board, 16in x 24in)
The brush and canvas has a mind behind it, an architect, an engineer, a draughtsman, and so the image develops slowly, sometimes over a period of weeks, and the lives that touched the objects, or the places that shaped the people, emerge as if out of a mist – first as vague shapes, and then slowly as the painting advances, the form appears, and eventually the details touch us with tactility. It is the illusion of the third dimension, an ancient exercise in mind and spirit.” – Steven Rhude
