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| I have been painting since 2002. I have not and will not be educated formally in “art.” Learning on my own has been exhilarating. My education has consisted of the writings of the dada movement, the surrealist movement, outsider art, and abstract expressionism, and the writings of Kandinsky, Rothko, Leo Tolstoy, Odilon Redon, and Alex Gray. I identify with the surrealist idea of “ecriture automatique”--a form of pictoral or written expression free of any censorship by the rational mind or the conscious will.” This is new for me though. When I started to paint, it was all about showing themes and ideas literally. For example, trees with eyes, dollar signs, guns, mountains with faces and so on. At this point my biggest inspirations were Alex Gray, Rene Magritte, Francis Bacon, Bosch, Dali, Klee, Miro, Redon, William Blake, and Picasso. They still are idols of mine, but then I discovered the works of Gorky, Matta, Rauschenberg, Johns, Schnabel, Pollack and Krasner, De Kooning, Rothko, Franz Kline, Dubuffet, Joan Mitchell and on and on. Their work opened up galaxies of mindsets of what painting could be and doesn’t have to be. My illustrated themes and ideas eventually evolved into abstraction. “I want to express my feelings rather than illustrate them.” ~ Jackson Pollack. As of late, I have been working on unstretched and unprimed canvas’s that are quite large in size (up to 8 ’ x 6 ’). Helen Frankenthalers’ oil soak/stain is a big influence as well as the scribble approach of Cy Twombly and Basquiat. The morphing shapes and oozing colors of Gorky and Matta Echaurren leave me breathless at every viewing, and hopefully their essences will appear in my work. When I see the blank canvas I take one deep breath with my eyes shut and then simply attack! “What was to go on the canvas was not a picture, but an event"--Harold Rosenberg. |
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Contact ::
email : nsullivanpaintings@gmail.comphone : 206.676.2214 > All paintings are currently for sale. Please email Nate for details and prices. |
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