Blue Ridge Abstraction Painting

Stephen Day, born in Nottingham, England 1944 and resident of Washington, DC, U.S. started painting waterscapes and bird portraits at age eighteen. Both parents painted which had a strong impact on him, as there were always water color paints, oils, and the whiff of turpentine in the house. He has had four one-man, and one two-person, exhibitions in Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. To date he has sold over eighty paintings. Stylistically, it is difficult to pigeon-hole Day. Current paintings, (typically 36X48 inches and up), are best described as waterscapes "Approaching Abstraction," where color and texture are the media and the message. Subject matter comes from domestic and international travels, and an eye for converting a particular view, sketch, or photograph to his semi-realism/abstraction. Examples are two Maine quatryches and, more recently, a series of over three dozen paintings of the Chesapeake Bay (Chesapeake Rhythms). Three artists have profoundly influenced Day. They are the contemporary Japanese artist Tetsuro Sawada (died 1998), who painted exquisite silkscreen 'skyscapes' fusing sky, water and land; David Hockney's fabulously color-driven landscapes; and Claude Monet's use of color to contrast diurnal rhythms on subjects as varied as Rouen Cathedral and haystacks. See: - .php?E=ID_collection&T=&ID=63 - Why Art? http://vimeo.com/77622975 What I attempt to to capture with art, was succinctly stated by Emile Zola: " A CORNER OF NATURE SEEN THROUGH A TEMPERAMENT."