“Flowers for Vincent” Artist Statement

“My ‘Flowers for Vincent’ paintings are a homage to the ‘Sunflower’ series by Vincent Van Gogh. I have always been a fan of Vincent Van Gogh, and I considered him to be one of the greatest painters in art history. His masterful use of color and layered impasto technique evokes immense power and emotion in each of his works. What I admire most about Van Gogh’s art is his remarkable ability to capture not only the essence of his subjects, but also the complexity of his own temperament. In contrast, my own style as a pop surrealist plays less on the painterly quality of painting and more about reductionism with minimal imagery. I employ a vibrant color palette, simplified iconography, with a flat painterly application. My work plays withing the parameters and traditions of painting not as technique but as a reference that informs my work. For this exhibition, I set out to push my process by developing a series of paintings rooted in repetition. My goal was to draw inspiration from Van Gogh’s iconic masterpiece, using it as the foundation for my own exploration. By selecting this universally recognized image as my starting point, I was able to distill and reinterpret its basic elements, focusing on the essential structure and character that make it so enduring. This method allows for flexibility in theme and portrayal, while introducing an element of playfulness to the artwork.

*Footnote: it is believed that Van Gogh painted eleven ‘Sunflower’ paintings as the primary subject and three more as part of a larger composition and that is why Ireimagined fourteen versions for my ‘Flowers for Vincent’ series.”

~Barry Russell Lorne

“Unruly” Artist Statement

“This work is unapologetically me. I am in my “I don’t give a fuck” era—not about the world, the environment, good people, animals. Those things I care deeply about and they keep me up at night. What I’m losing is my filter for everything else: the performance, the politeness, the pretending.

This is about learning to call out bullshit when I see it. About making myself occupy space where I never felt I belonged. About feeling smart when you have always felt stupid—or been told you were.

Each painting is approached as a call and response: each shape, each colour informing the next, until a composition forms that I am satisfied with. The work is about nothing and about everything. It is about occupying space, breaking constraints—and sometimes looking good, or at the very least, confident about it.”

~Jennifer d’Entremont