Steve Beck... Artist Bio

STEVEN BECK

1957 -

I’ve been painting since my early teens and my early work revolves around the sea and shore where I grew up in coastal Connecticut. My development as an artist has been kinetic, constantly evolving, a characteristic that I owe in part to my resistance to formal studio training. I preferred an outdoor environment. There was something askew with the artificial light that permeates those places. I felt it would permeate me too, and then my art and then I would end up painting plaster models for what seemed like the rest of my life. I felt an overwhelming need to develop my own style immediately.... without too much influence.

I would absolutely love to say I was self-taught, but that is not wholly correct. I was initially inspired to paint by my love for the river where I grew up and immediately began my training by studying under such masters as Pissarro, Sorolla and Monet, and a short but intensive period with van Gogh. (All of whom I was fortunate enough to meet personally at the library) I continued my studies under Gauguin, Turner (to name but a few, working furiously to understand their methods, not simply of technique, but thought), and a classic, brief, but very vivid time with Kandinsky and his Blaue Reiter gang. By the way, I highly recommend, to everyone, artist or not, reading ON THE SPIRITUAL IN ART, written in 1910 (revised 1912) by Wassily Kandinsky.

I am currently in an exhaustive and comprehensive study period with the subjective aspect of the greatest art master of all....nature. And within and surrounding the visual expressions of nature and our perception of those "natural" expressions is the science of the physical, mechanical universe and our struggle to understand it. Physics began to influence my work, specifically thermodynamics. The integration of this developing understanding can be seen in my 2002 series "Entropical Waves", depicting entropy as wave patterns on water. But, my art is a sum of all its parts.... and continues to add or subtract elements which therefore constantly change the whole, or net result. I cannot foresee an end to the evolution of my work, as if discovering some sort of comfortable theme, or color scheme or technique would allow me to slide into an artistic rut, stamping out painting after painting, each one looking very much like the last.

I have been asked, so many times, to “classify” my work. For me, it has defied a specific category. Is it impressionist? Abstract? What? Personally, I feel "yesterdays" labels are irrelevant to today's art, but... it is meaningful to take and keep a certain amount of influence from the true innovators and masters of art, both historic and contemporary. So, what is the “next level”? For me, it is simply to keep moving forward.

In a clear way my life and my art are dealing with the same things we all are. We’re living in a hectic world at a hectic pace... and the result is our imagination has been stretched too thin.... all too often we miss the simple beauty that surrounds us, the things that are truly thought provoking. The wind, the colors, the night, wave patterns on the water… we usually simply miss it, we overcomplicate ourselves. I try to give you a glimpse, a simple, quick glimpse. An image, a feeling, a provocation. A reminder of those things that have become so tightly woven into the fabric that they are inherently ignored. Colors and form, the underside of a leaf, a precise moment of light, the shadow of an unseen cloud, that kind of thing. Albeit from a different “view” perhaps. We all can see the same things. I simply take the time to look at it from a different angle …. And then I put it down on canvas.

I think that it is important to go a bit further than creating the image and presenting it to the viewer. Maybe not everyone wants to know "what the artist was thinking", but I do feel that for those who do, a heightened understanding amplifies their appreciation of the work they are viewing. I have struggled with creating the tangible means to provide this without simultaneously degrading the viewers experience by introducing elements not aroused by their own imagination stimulated by the painting. Ultimately, it took the landscape in Puerto Rico to provide me the inspirational fuel to create a new genre, not just of painting, but intellectually understanding painting that I’ve coined SARISM, an acronymic based word combining Subjective, Abstract and Realism. SARISM defines not only a method and style of creating artwork, but of viewing art. The work that falls under this ‘categorization’ brings the elements of SUBJECTIVITY, ABSTRACTION and REALISM together into a distinct perceptibility. The key to meaningful abstraction in painting is to link the abstract’s conception to elements of perceptible reality via a recognizable landscape element, depth perspective or coloration. Then the element of realism becomes subjective which is the key to SARISM. All reality is in fact subjective and SARISM brings this truth of reality forward from the subconscious to the conscious.

“I want people to see finally what lies behind my paintings.”
----Kandinsky to Will Grohmann, November 1925

“I just received the ROAD TO KEY WEST.... The colors are so filled with the sea and sky... mysteries over the horizon. Yes you are poet as well as a painter. Words can’t express the emotion I feel to regard this lovely canvas. I absolutely love it. Thanks!” Luanne Rice, best-selling author, collector.