Niall J. Ward

Artist Statement

My work at present consists of a rendering of abstract expressionist applications of paint and brushstrokes to create veristic surrealist landscapes that ooze from the canvas with aesthetic organic form and a flowing energy, saturated in exuberant colour. Sometimes showing automatist qualities in larger pieces, I have experimented with various techniques to create paintings that capture the viewer’s eye, to provide them with a window into my interior self, away from this world of mutual destruction.

My aim is to study as many areas of nature as possible to influence my portrayal of this chaotic yet beautiful planet and beyond. By bringing aesthetic beauty back into irrational and frenzied brush strokes and by the unusual organic-meets-mineral aspect found in my work I express and emphasize my feelings towards a link between the illogical formations of our natural world and the inevitable demise of the human race due to nuclear fallout or global warming. Nature harnesses the gift of life and can just as easily take it away.

These paintings, although sometimes different in method and appearance, share the same fundamental purpose. By providing a spiritual or aesthetically beautiful experience, I wish to bring unique images of our fragile natural world and beyond to life but also to remind us that we will not be here forever and that we must cherish what we have got.

Biography

Born in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh in 1981, I spent a lot of time visiting the west coast of Ireland and painting some of the amazing scenery it has to offer. I moved to Belfast in 2000 to study for a Foundation Certificate of Art and Design and later a Degree in Fine and Applied Arts in the University of Ulster. My work consisted of detailed traditional landscapes such as those of the west coast and of some darker imagery influenced by artists such as Giger, Bosch and Beksinski. During my time in college, I developed a style of painting that refrained from my usual methods but maintained an attention to detail.

Influenced by automatisic qualities of surrealist and psychedelic artists such as Max Ernst, early works of Tom Blackwell and Bernard Saby and by applying paint to canvas through techniques such as decalcomania, bulletism, eclaboussure and soufflage. I brought detail, depth and organic line back into my paintings by rendering or manipulating some areas of paint with a fine brush.

I began to create large canvases (chance configurations), each named simply with the first word that was invoked when viewing the finished painting, that contain organic forms, thrusting energies, electric, vibrant colours and a use of line that attracts the viewer to gaze at the image. These unfiltered scenes of my subconscious invite the viewer to interpret the work as he or she wishes.

I now live in Carlow, in the south of Ireland with my own family, where the work I am currently involved with combines this method of painting, with my interest in landscapes to again create art that is noticed for its aesthetics instantly. Sharing veristic surrealist qualities these paintings depict many typical Irish and British countryside or coastal scene. The places that I have visited have left a lasting impression on me. Trees savaged by the elements, vast open fields, valleys and dramatic skies. Again these works, filled with intricate pictorial spaces, allow the viewer their own interpretation but leave a subtle message in their title relating to a journey I have experienced.

I anticipate painting different parts of the world. Places where the landscape is completely alien, the earth a different colour and vegetation unfamiliar. It’s a big world out there and I look forward to every new encounter, to provide the viewer with another window into my interior self.

Member Data

Membership: exclusive member since May 18, 2008
Energy Art style: energetic abstractionism
Medium: oil on canvas

Giorgio Vaselli

Artist Statement

“Most of all values, I believe in that of the great Old Masters, who have never failed to strive for technical expertise, whether in color, form, or composition.

Yet I consider the achievements of modernists equally significant, in their trials of broadening the fields of abstract invention and expression.

With a respect for the giants of the Fine Arts, I am determined to incorporate their teachings into my way of painting, through an energetic and dynamic view of reality, enriched by the expressivity of abstraction.”

– January of 2009

Biography

As a boy growing up in the countryside, Giorgio admired the exuberant beauty of nature. While becoming more mature however, his desire for envisioning and expressing ideas unseen in nature, has led him to realize the necessity of abstraction, which if handled properly, can open doors to a myriad of amazing worlds, richer in many ways than our own. Proper handling for him, means setting his standards high in both self-expression and technique.

Born in 1980 in Hungary, his childhood interest in art was instinctive, much like his development in his youth. His desire to learn, evolve and mature, led him to explore thoroughly the course of art history, acquiring knowledge of the different styles and techniques of both the Old and Modern Masters on his travels, while allowing his personal style to develop on its own.

His arrival to Canada in September of 2007, marks a milestone in both his life and his career, as he plans to exhibit and sell his work to a broader community of connoisseurs. In May of 2008, he has founded the Energy Art Movement with a few young artists who shared his vision of creating conceptual high-quality energetic artwork.

In December of 2008, he chose digital painting as his primary medium, after painting in oils for several years. His new works are thus available as high-quality limited-edition prints.

Member Data

Membership: exclusive member since May 1, 2008
Energy Art style: energetic surrealism
Medium: oil on canvas, digital art
Interview: with Peggy Mintun on Jul. 4, 2010

Joe MacGown

About the Artist

I am originally from Maine where I lived until I was about ten years old. My family then moved to Starkville, Mississippi, where I still live with my wife Julie and our son Joseph. I have been employed for the last twenty years at the Mississippi Entomological Museum at Mississippi State University as a research technician/scientific illustrator. I am a self-taught artist and I began drawing and painting at a very young age. By the time I was five years old, I had already begun a style of art that was to become a life long pursuit – surreal art. Even with my first drawings and paintings I remember trying to do my best to twist reality. Throughout the last 25 years, I have continued to develop my surrealistic drawing style, which I refer to as “Neogothic Surrealism” or “Subconscious Meandering.” I usually work with black India ink, using fine-tipped Koh-i-noor Rapidograph pens, but also do mixed media color works. I do highly detailed drawings, building layers by crosshatching, stippling, and other methods. Some of these drawings take up to 300 hours to finish. I draw whenever I have free time, which usually means nights and weekends. The structure of my artwork is based on the drawing of random shapes, after which I then draw shapes in the negative spaces created by the first shapes, and so forth. Although I find subject matter everywhere, much of my inspiration comes from my love of science fiction and from my studies of nature. For example, it should be obvious that I work in entomology, as my art is often intermixed with various insectoid body parts. All of my observations are thrown into my mind where they are intermixed with memories and other thoughts. They are later expressed in random ways in my drawings. When I begin a drawing, I usually have no preconceived idea of what I am going to draw, other than at most a minimal idea or a basic shape. I do not do underlying pencil sketches, but instead start working directly with the pen. This allows for more spontaneity and subconscious flow, which is the basis for all of my surreal art. Does my art mean anything? Possibly, however because I typically put minimal to no thought into what I am doing, any meaning has more to do with who I am as an individual and where I am in life at any given time.

Member Data

Membership: exclusive member since Jun. 2, 2008
Energy Art style: energetic surrealism
Personal style: neogothic surrealism
Medium: acrylic / watercolor / rapidograph pen / ink on paper / board

Rollin Kocsis

Artist Statement

The process of making art is central to my life; it is my passion. It seems I have always had a desire to paint, draw, or create some other type of visual art. I love the process and the product of art. Creating art provides me with challenges that involve the skills I have learned over the years.

Before you can understand how I make art, I would like to share a quote by Canadian painter Lawren Harris. He said, “Paintings come out of themselves.” I truly believe this and it is how I approach my work. Most of my paintings are spontaneous and they simply evolve from the process of painting. I like to work in layers. Usually, the first thing I do is select a color scheme for the work I am about to complete (complimentary, analogous, split-compliment, triads, etc.). Then I start smearing paint around. I like to begin with a palette knife; I feel it is very freeing because it’s difficult to control the paint with a knife. As I push paint around, if I don’t have a subject in mind, I’m thinking of one. Many times the paint spread on the canvas gives me ideas. It is like when you see images in the clouds. Sometimes I use tape to mask out areas or certain colors as I layer on other colors. As I apply the tape, I am aware of the composition I am designing. I like the surprises that come up when the tape is peeled away. Layer after layer, the painting almost begins to create itself. As the painting develops, I get more detailed in my work, using smaller brushes and more precise strokes.

My goal as a painter is two-fold: to enjoy what I am doing, and to make something that someone else will enjoy. What is art without an audience? Art is to be shared. I hope my work brings something of value to those who view it.

Biography

Rollin Kocsis was born and raised in South Bend, Indiana. He attended Indiana University in Bloomington where he graduated with honors in 1970 with a B. S. in art education. That same year he moved to Memphis, Tennessee.

Rollin Kocsis began his teaching career with the Memphis City Schools in 1971, and he currently teaches at Westwood High School. He has taught for 37 years.

Rollin holds two advanced degrees in the arts. He earned a Masters of Teaching in Art Education and a Masters of Fine Arts in Painting from Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis).

In his long artistic career, Rollin Kocsis has exhibited in juried exhibitions, group and solo shows throughout the United States. He has won a number of local, regional, and national awards. Rollin is an independent artist who is also represented by the Maison Rouge Galerie in Chicago, Illinois.

Member Data

Membership: exclusive member since Jul. 17, 2008
Energy Art style: energetic abstractionism
Medium: acrylic on canvas / masonite

Kuba Fiedorowicz

Artist Statement

All that exists is energy vibrating at a particular frequency. People who create, can work with different energies channeling them through the mediums of painting, music, poetry or other areas to ground these ideas into tangible physical reality. Creators are like radios tuned into different stations, playing the song of themselves, the world and the beyond. Colours are frequencies so paintings are like songs, tiny snippets of the one, the song of Mother/Father God which vibrates throughout eternity.

I’ve chosen to use art, poetry, and to a lesser extent music, to somehow convey what that feeling of eternity is like. It seems like an impossible task, but i’ve decided to devote my life to it. Art for me is a calling, my thank-you song to the Creator for everything i’ve been given.

Member Data

Membership: exclusive member since Dec. 5, 2008
Energy Art style: energetic surrealism
Medium: oil / acrylic and tempera on canvas / wood, ballpoint pen on paper

Adam James Davis

About the Artist

Adam J. Davis is an artist based in Nottinghamshire, England. He works with the audible, visual and literary mediums, although he likes to see no distinction between these disciplines, as well as between others. No music, no poetry… just the subjective and the objective, where there is beauty in both (a “meta-subjective” opinion, though!). He is inspired by the idea that there is harmony and rhythm in everything, be it physical or abstract, and that true, pure chaos, disharmony and arrhythmia may be an impossibility (so far in this universe, at least). He also believes that we should strive culturally, technologically and physically towards states and existences of perpetual energy, perpetual harmony, and perpetual bliss, where such phenomena increase exponentially within and around us, without removing them from somewhere else, and that we exist and live because of harmony… the intersection and interference of elements and energies; intersection is harmony. Adam has left the chauvinistic association of harmony and rhythm with music behind, and are essential elements in all of his work… sonic and extra-sonic.

Member Data

Membership: exclusive member since Feb. 25, 2009
Energy Art style: energetic abstractionism
Medium: digital art

Dan Bunea

Artist Statement

I want my painting to be full of life, full of vibrant colors, of movement, of emotion, and to have an impact on its watcher. I want it to dominate, to excite, to energize. I want the watcher to enjoy it, and to be able to develop and emotional binding with it, to break into an colorful universe. I want it to offer hope.

Member Data

Membership: exclusive member since Dec. 12, 2008
Energy Art style: energetic expressionism
Medium: acrylics on canvas

Susan Waters-Eller

About the Artist

Susan Waters-Eller, twice the winner of the Trustees Award for Excellence in Teaching at the Maryland Institute College of Art, is a native of Baltimore and received all of her degrees from MICA (BFA ’72, MFA ’78, MA in Digital Arts ’98). Working in a variety of media from painting to interactive animation, she uses illusionistic techniques to probe beneath the surface of reality.

Included in “Contemporary American Oil Painting” published in China, her thirty-year career has included numerous solo and group shows. She is currently working on a book that presents the material from her class on illussionism for the general reader.

Member Data

Membership: senior member since Jan. 26, 2009
Energy Art style: energetic abstractionism
Medium: oil on canvas