Opening Reception: Friday, June 25th, 2010 5 - 7 PM
Hunter Kirkland Contemporary presents, “Between Connections”, an exhibition of new oil paintings on linen and pastels on paper by the artist Rick Stevens. The public is invited to the opening reception on Friday, June 25th, 2010, 5 to 7 PM.
Stevens has spent more than 25 years making art, and his inspiration has been nature and the landscape throughout. While he has worked with both objective and non-objective subjects over his career, his current work is abstraction -- the culmination of years of exploration in both pastel and oil.
As someone who works in two mediums, Stevens notices how each influences the other. In his oil paintings, he uses both brushes and oil bars because they are more akin to working with pastels. He enjoys the textural qualities of oil paint and simulates this texture in his pastels by layering and varying their applications. For him, a pastel doesn't feel finished until he has achieved a certain amount of buildup - as many as 15 layers.
All of Stevens' work carries a theme of the interconnectedness of nature. One thing flows into the next. His exploration of the spiritual connections within natural patterns results in a balance and expression reached, not through an intellectual process, but an intuitive one.