Artist Alex Beard calls his signature style of painting
"abstract naturalism" where abstraction and figuration collide.
Themes of cultural and environmental interconnectivity
are explored within a gorgeous collection
of paintings inspired by wildlife, travel,
and natural patterns inside
A Brush with Nature:
Abstract Naturalism and the Painting of Life
(Glitterati, 2016)
Beard paints intensely colorful, detailed interpretations of the world, and this book includes works made over the past 25 years, as well as a handwritten introduction illuminating his philosophy of the interconnectedness of life, art, and mathematics.
Beard is fascinated by how things
all move in the same way and says
the universality of this truth comforts him.
He uses ink and oil paints to tell stories
and has me listening closely with my eyes.
Sliced and diced
footprint porcupine
Beard's work has been described as
"precise yet abstract visual arithmetic,"
and with little reference for
the school of visual mathematics
(beyond working as a math tutor for years!),
whose fascination with high and low or
close by and far away is legendary.
Sphere Spirals
Mobius Strip II
Engage with stories told in A Brush with Nature:
Abstract Naturalism and the Painting of Life
,hear Beard's voice paint them in this video,
or witness their beauty live at the artist's studio
in New Orleans where he paints.
Peace to you right where you are.
