The title may seem like a huge exaggeration to some, but let's see if you have the same opinion after you read my post and see the photos I have to share here today, about an amazing exhibition I visited on the 8th of April this year.
As always, I went to the exhibition knowing absolutely nothing about who is exhibiting or what is exhibited. For me, this is the best way as having no expectation of any kind gives me the opportunity to enjoy everything I see and not come home disappointed.
The artist's name is Steve Bradford, he's an English artist, who's living in Romania now. I tried to find him on the internet, but couldn't. The truth is, there are so many people with this name that it's a difficult task.
Avalon
This was the first artwork I saw and must admit, I was standing in front of it, trying to find answers to the most obvious question.
When I enter a gallery and don't know what is expecting me, I have a look around, from the door and then go to the first artwork, have a good look at it and then trying to figure out how it was made. I'm not sure about you, but I bet I'm not the only one who does that. Some artworks are obvious, or knowing the artist, you already know what it is, but this wasn't the case here. I was leaning towards believing it's photo printed on canvas, but wasn't sure. With the technology we have today, you can't be sure of anything.
This artwork was huge, it would definitely not fin in an apartment, or it would cover the whole wall.
I loved the point of view, from where the artist decided to focus on the subject and the cloudy sky in the background was just what the artwork needed, to not take focus away from the nude.
There were these smaller artworks available as well. Too bad there was no space to exhibit them on the wall and were placed on the ground. I don't know who got down to their knees to watch them from closer, I didn't, but regardless, these were really nice too.
Would be nice to know how the artist prepared those metal plates before painting as rust is a natural process, that takes time and to get it manually, you need to know what to use and how to do it. The other thing I'd like to know is how difficult or how different it is to paint on rusted metal, as pint acts differently way on every surface.
Most likely I would have had all the answers I need, if I'd have attended the opening, but knowing first takes away all the fun and you end up having the artist's thoughts first and then there's no need to guess, which takes away all the fun. Tough decision for sure.
Elemental 1, 2, & 3
This was another mystery at first, and a very nice one as well. When I got closer, I saw it's painted on rusty metal boards, which is a very good idea, as you can see, the rusty brown metal can provide a very nice background and nice contrast to the white and black paint.
Looking at these small ones now, I regret not having the possibility to get closer and take an individual photo of each.
Unconscious Pilot
If you found the previous ones boring or not special, I bet this can stop you for a minute. I tried to find the right word for what this means in my eyes, but I don't think there is one single word that can cover all this means.
So let's try exquisite, exceptional, unconventional, rebel, protest, amazing, out-of-the-box thinking, unbelievably good, ..., did I leave something out?
I was standing there looking at the artwork, admiring the concept, the idea of mixing religion with modern behavior and so on.
This was the moment when i gave up guessing and went to the gallery lady to ask her what it is, what technique the artist used to create these masterpieces. Ready? So these are paintings! Not print, hand painted with paint, on canvas. I got very close to most of them and can see the marks giving it away. I even took some close-up photos of some, where you can see drawing marks.
There were no price tags and didn't see a price list on the table, I imagine the price one artwork like this would cost, but I'd love to own this. It's the highest level for me, for many reasons.
Most likely you will recognize later, that some of these small artworks are the miniature (if I can use this word) version of the big ones, on a different medium, as the background is dark, or brown here.
Money for Sale
While I was looking at these beauties, was thinking how the artist worked on them. I think (and I don't think I'm wrong here), he had a photo in front of him and reproduced it on canvas. Not the above one as you would need to film such move and play it back in slow motion, but the rest. How the light is illustrated on the canvas and how he played with the shadows, to get a lifelike painting is amazing. I find this artist exceptionally talented and can say, I've never seen such paintings.
This is just a part of it, there's more to come, so stay tuned.
I'm tagging my lovely friend @dimascastillo90 here, who's a photographer, but I'm sure he will like these, especially the Unconscious Pilot, which is my absolute favorite.
Let me know in a comment, what you think and if you've ever seen such paintings.
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