Scott Fraser

ARTIST STATEMENT
by Scott Fraser
There are many artists and genres that interest me and have influenced my progression as an artist, and I appreciate both historical and contemporary works. Van Eyke, Vermeer and Vander Wyden share the list with Lucien Freud, Joseph Cornell, Paul Klee and Frank Auerbach. I am particularly attached to the London school along with a group of contemporary Spanish realists. Of these, Lopez Garcia and Isabella Quintanilla impress me the most.

I have had an interest in painting since I was a young boy and my parents, who have always been very supportive, framed a small painting of roses that I did at age 3. It now hangs in my studio as a reminder of my early aspirations. I remember going to the Chicago Art Institute frequently as a boy, especially enjoying the works of Picasso. I went off to art school at the Kansas City Art Institute which was also pivotal. There they set me free to experiment with concept in a rich, dynamic environment. After leaving KCAI, I started out slowly, painting, learning and finally selling my work. This took a number of years. At age 27 I went away to Europe which turned out to be one of the most influential periods in my life. At this time, I had the opportunity to view first hand the artwork that I had previously only been able to admire in books. The Flemish artists spoke to me, especially Vermeer and his Woman Pouring Milk. Seeing this work altered my path as a realist painter, and was a catalyst for me changing from the figure and landscape to still life. Van Eykes alter piece in Ghent, made a lasting impression, and I was greatly inspired by a small work by Gerard Terborsh titled Gallant Conversation. I also had the good fortune to be able to see a Francis Bacon show at the Tate Gallery, and Las Meninas at the Prado, both of which I will never forget. It was during this time that I developed a more personal narrative style which found a voice in Still Life painting. I am still growing and developing this voice, and am never at a loss for what to paint next since the possibilities within the genre are endless.

The contemporary art world is not a place where a person can sit back and get too comfortable and I try not to confuse myself with all the isms that pop up in art. I am constantly looking to expand my knowledge, vision and expertise, and I feel most comfortable when I can experiment with imagery that is outside the box. I find I learn more with my larger work, so I try to take on one or two large projects a year that I can really sink my teeth into. 

I certainly have been influenced by teachers, friends and art history. I also think it is easy to get too heavy and serious about art, so I havent followed any one school of thought. My paintings are very personal, with one work often evolving from another in a series of cycles. Much of my imagery is inspired by my surroundings, my background and family. My children have been a huge and ongoing inspiration for me, not just by way of the objects that have been incorporated into my paintings, but in the mind set they have shared with me. It is their honest interpretation and unaffected exploration of the natural world that has really opened my eyes and that I have tried to apply in my own work.

Alex Kanevsky

To look at a painting by Kanevsky is to look at it for the first time, even if one has visited the piece before. By condensing the structure, content and assorted ephemera of a given scene into a single, saturated moment, refigured forms and gestures are continually impelled to the painting’s surface only to recede in accommodation of future findings. Such honesty and freshness is rooted in Kanevsky’s fidelity to a naïve gaze, an exercise in which the faculties of knowledge are constantly reset so as to stave off tidy assumptions about how things work or what they mean.


By remaining open to an ever-evolving vision of the world, Kanevsky’s paintings deliberately defy stylistic and thematic pigeonholing in an art world obsessed with taxonomic boundaries. His manner of painting is instead motivated by a desire to generate dialogue between subjective personal perception, external reality, and the tenuousness of translation. As Kanevsky explains, “if painting is a form of language, I attempt to create a language, foreign to all but myself, and then say a few things in that language in such a way that would make them clear to anybody who listens, even if the language remains foreign to the listener.” In order to reconcile these fissures between self-expression and communication, between the real and the represented, Kanevsky adopts a technique predicated on the idea of continuous exchange, or fluid conversation. By building up diaphanous layers of paint – each describing a singular, fleeting frame – the resultant painting becomes a palimpsest of elapsed time, like a photograph blurred due to a slow shutter speed. The almost cinematic quality of the compositions’ temporal and spatial siting echoes the dynamism and intensity of Kanevsky’s brushstrokes, which further amplify the sense of motion that both constitutes and defines his sense of the world. These subtly abstracted figures and landscapes work to free the viewer’s own gaze, thereby revealing what unifocal depiction compels us to overlook.

Energy and movement, however, are counterbalanced by an equally palpable sense of stillness. This quiet is manifested in the deeply contemplative moods his paintings evoke and the ethereal quality produced by their visual vigor. Such a paradoxical coupling of forces is exquisitely embodied by Polish Rider 2 (2010), in which the stillness of a hunting horse at rest is held in check by the potential energy contained within the animal’s powerful musculature. The horse’s anonymity, the indeterminate positioning of its rear legs and the dematerialized torso of its rider elicit an ambiguity that nimbly suspends tranquility and flight in favor of an otherworldly middle ground. 

Karen Hollingsworth: Windowscapes

Karen Hollingsworth is known for her unique light, airy “windowscapes”. In the past the artist painted interior spaces, now she includes an open window that acts as a portal into the space beyond. Her large oil paintings often depict subject matter that is fairly minimal, chairs and ordinary interior settings, however what attracts many viewers is the mysticism evoked by the movement of the air and the ocean breeze through the curtains. 

For Karen, a painting is about the feeling it evokes. Although there are no figures present in her windowscapes, it is difficult to deny the implications of vacant chairs in such an empty space. Karen is interested in creating the “impression of looking through that room and seeing the view outside the room.

“I love to create paintings that evoke a sense of the familiar,” says Karen. “To blend the common objects of everyday life, placed within the interior of a room, with a glimpse of the ocean or mountains through an open window. My windowscapes are intended to provide the viewer with a sense of solitude and well being. A comfortable world bathed in sunlight and warm breezes. For me, a painting is successful if “I wish I were there.”