The first one-person show of the summer season opens on June 16th at the Eastport Gallery with the work of well-known, Eastport artist Arthur Cadieux. Entitled “Coastal Visions”, the paintings are an exploration of the many moods and diverse aspects of the Downeast shoreline with the primary focus on its tumultuous edge where land, rock, and the sea are lashes by wind and shaped by the endless cycle of the tides.
In his words Cadieux offers the viewer “a vision of conflict and excitement, the appearance of pattern and pattern upset, ugliness and beauty all at the same time and in my own language.” The series began as an exploration of color and design with a vague idea of the beach as subject. When the result had staying power it became a motif which then became the motivation for continuing to work.
As an Expressionist Cadieux paints his reaction to the environment, the primary focus of his paintings. “I wish to expand an idea, to express a mood, or to uncover beauty, power, or mystery. I use Downeast images as a pretext to create the paintings that are within me.” Arthur uses nature as the jumping off place to make his reactions live on the canvas.
Heightened color and unmistakeable rhythm are very clear identifying features of his work. Color shapes the mood of the paintings. “I want the color to proclaim the paintings, to project an explosion of emotion, of passion.” The rhythm in the work is supplied by jazz which he listens to most often. “When it’s jazz I’m listening to, that’s when the colors come out. The music helps me to find a new way of looking at the familiar.”
Arthur Cadieux’s work will be featured at the Eastport Gallery until June 28.