return to featured artists page →
Gallery Artist: Sean Thomas
Artist's Statement
Elements of the modern landscape have evolved into a sort of paradox. Industry and infrastructure have developed to sustain our lifestyles of necessity, comfort and convenience yet the actual means by which our goods and services are provided often become a sort of background noise or even an intrusive nuisance/eyesore. I revel in such feats of engineering – looking at architecture and the industrialized landscape with great interest. My work represents those objects as man-made “fingerprints” integrated into the natural environment with varying degrees of harmony and tension.
The use of layering to build up color, tone and atmosphere via traditional materials and techniques (oil, watercolor, drawing) is essential in my work. My painting methods are connected to the very nature of our modern surroundings – the new has always been built atop the old and traces of the past are often evident in everything new. Working directly from source photos and sketches, the placements and design of the space are priorities; I will treat a source photo as a still-life and exercise judgment on what moments to include and where they are to be placed. Through this extensive editing process involving re-organization and simplification of subject matter, an aesthetic language is formulated and the context of the everyday environment is altered.