"Portrait of Nivea B." Painting


Greg Mason Burns is a contemporary visual artist who focuses on emotional unknowns and in particular societal pressure, adventure, ​fear, frustration, stress, and chaos. His current works include paintings using oil, watercolor, charcoal, and oil pastel, and can be abstract and reductive in nature.

Burns partially characterizes himself as "novo surrealist" in that he sees the world itself as a surrealistic collection of events. His art is not about dreams, but more about contrasting the media-dominated reality with personal emotions. Burns sees this contrast as being surreal, and it is this that greatly affects his work.

On a contrarian note, Burns is anti-Tableau because he believes that this form of art is intentionally disingenuous with its overly dramatic and indifferent tone.

His work is project-oriented, and many of his projects last years before they are completed. His long-term goal is to work from project-related grants and private sales and donations in order to advance his projects. He has been heavily influenced by Ernest Hemingway, Wassily Kandinsky, and in general the Fauvism and Expressionist movements, and to some extent transcendental idealism.