MAINE SUITE II:15 Cushing / Olsons’ Blue Painting

Lancelott is an internationally recognized artist who was born 30 January 1934 in Boston, Massachusetts (USA). His paternal grandfather was of English stock (whose ancestors first came to America in 1790) who married the daughter of a union of first generation immigrants from Sweden and Germany. His maternal grandparents combine Scotch-Canadian and Native American lineage. Since the 1970s he has actively pursued parallel career paths. While working as a vice president of J P Morgan Chase and serving as associate director of the American Council for the Arts and as the chief administrative officer of two art museums in America, he was simultaneously making, exhibiting and selling his artwork under the nom de brosse, Lancelott. Fifteen of his works are held in nine institutional and corporate collections including a major painting in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Fine Art in Amman, Jordan and The National Gallery of Thailand. Over the years, working with found objects, images from popular culture, photography, acrylic, gouache, oil stick, pastels, cut and torn paper I have been making art in a variety of styles: surrealistic compositions based on my dream life; abstract or non objective pieces with some figurative elements; the merging of two or more images in an intricate basket weave pattern made up of small squares of cut paper; photorealistic acrylic and collage constructions.Irrespective of the artistic style, there are some common threads that run throughout my work:an interest in creating what Victor Davson has called richly patterned and rivetingly sensuous visual statements. The use of the human figure.the rearrangement of form and the interplay of color and images to create new realitiesthe use of juxtaposition and the transfer of images from one context to another.creating a personal diary of places visited.an expression of deep, unspoken, partially veiled thoughts, creating what Carl Hazlewood characterizes as an art of personal desire. My most recent work is a series of large (120 x 120 cm to 183 x 203 cm) abstract paintings on raw linen in which exposed areas of the linen surface often become part of the composition. The Gayne Suite of 12 paintings are inspired by the music of Armenmian composer Aram Katchaturian.