Golden Hour
Kyle Scheurmann's oil paintings are the documentations of our threatened landscapes that have undergone human-induced trauma. The artist's work is painted on linen, canvas or jute, and characterized by his thoughtful palette and painterly approach; utilizing the subtle nuances of indigo, mauve and violet to great effect. Pieces are presented unframed, and ready to hang.
About Golden Hour, the artist states:
The goal was to paint in a way that I already know how to do, incrementally building on detail and colour.
The first colour appeared as a result of working around somebody else’s creative intentions in the forest. Lachlan, the filmmaker, was insistent every day that we saved the most important part of our adventuring for “Golden Hour.”
I’ve spent a lot of time hunting Golden Hour in the past too. Especially when traveling with friends, or when the goal is exclusively to make a good photograph. But when the goal is to take photos in order to then make a good painting, I don’t worry too much about the light. I know I get to be the light back in the studio. I can assert all my thoughts about light in any direction or temperature while painting. Taking photos while in the field is more about collecting shapes and compositions, or bookmarking memories and moments.
But with Lachlan’s eye out there too, we planned our days based on the light. Now, my memories of the trip all seem to happen in the hour just before the sun tucked behind the mountain.
Gold.
I found the second colour in a river at the base of a waterfall.
I’ve been very lucky to see lots of salmon out west, including several times hiking along river banks during peak spawning season. But salmon are a bit like chameleons. After they spawn, they change colour to a dark brown with purple streaks. This is the colour they usually are when they die in the shallow water and become bear food on the rocks along the riverbed.
But earlier in their lives, while they’re still making their way upstream waiting to spawn, they’re bright red.
This is something I’ve only ever really seen photos of. It’s something I'm often imaging in my older paintings, using reference photos I have of brown salmon that I then paint red instead.
Then I saw them, unexpectedly, after hiking down a steep hill to a swimming hole at the bottom of high falls near Revelstoke. Hot, bright, burning red salmon.
Red.