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Adam Stewart

Mixed Media

Living in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado will always be my bottomless well of inspiration for painting.  The visually stimulating landscape never fails to excite my emotions.  Painting is a way for me to channel the overwhelming vistas that evoke powerful feelings.  The result, a picture that becomes the essence of nature.

Others before me have taken similar feelings and used this inspiration to make beautiful pictures.  They were the Abstract Expressionists.  I feel closest to their experimental paint and compositional approaches.  Artist like:  Willem De Kooning, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Matta and Hans Hoffman each poured their own emotions and personal views of their surroundings onto canvas to reflect a personal, grand vision.  Another artist who lives at the heart of my vision is J.M.W. Turner.  Although very different in approach from the Abstract Expressionists, Turner paints a landscape that is felt more than actually seen.  The atmospheric glow that emanates from his paintings is like no other.  An atmosphere that you can almost feel the wetness of the climate, sense the heat from a bright warm yellow, or become lost in a foggy mist of gray.  This phenomenon is what I’m after.  I work at creating a spiritual-naturalistic atmosphere that is livable, breathable, and wonderful, while being brightly abstract, foreign, and extremely interesting.

The painting’s surface is always an exploration of structure and texture.  Illusionistic shapes are my suggestion of imagery.  Amorphic drifts hint at wind, water, or motion, while geometric shapes build up a topographical or divided view of forms.  Imagery is ambiguous, a painting is meant to be pondered by the viewing individual.  An introduction of texture ranges from a pebbly-rocky crust to a smooth soft passage.  Within this texture is a combination of Earthen and man-made materials to create a sense of interest and tension.

These textural and compositional elements combined with an inspiring surrounding provide me with a strong foundation to fulfill my artistic vision.  To take painting to another dimension, a direction shared by J.M.W. Turner and the Expressionsits of the past.  A concept of blending natural phenomenon with a colorful expressionsim.

Tree Series (2005-Present)

Stewart was very fortunate to grow up surrounded by the Rocky Mountains.  Aspen trees generate early childhood memories of the outdoors: the smells, the sounds, and the beauty.  The Stewart family was also dependent on the Aspen tree for firewood as their home was heated by a wood-burning stove.  This tree series is dedicated to those memories. 

Stewart developed a different technique for this concept. Each painting employs the exclusive use of trowels, without the use of paintbrush, similar to the Impressionists, only wielding a much bigger palate knife.  The impression Adam Stewart leaves is more akin to the Abstract Expressionist’s gesture and the illusion of subject created by the Impressionists. This fusion of Expressionism and Impressionism embodies the tree series concept.  The usage of tools, used to shape the paintings imagery, lend themselves wonderfully for blending large surfaces.  Often, multi-colored pigments are combined in mixture that appears to stir on the surface.  Imagery is captured and yet the colors continue to flow.  This is best exemplified in the foreground region under close inspection.

Tree Series (Precious Metal leaf)

Stewart creates a shimmering glow by adding gold and silver leaf to the tree series paintings.  To enhance the luminosity, thin brushwork and troweling define the foliage and landscape allowing the glowing metal to show through.  This allows light to reflect back a painting with an ever-changing sensation.  Nothing compares to the illuminating glow of sunlight passing through the leaves of the Aspen trees. 

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