I like to think I began these paintings 60 years ago. When I was ten years old, I started painting and surfing. These two activities continue to serve as my refuge from the tumult of the world, even today. I would copy coastal landscape paintings, album covers, and posters from Broadway musicals like "South Pacific.” I was totally smitten with tropical light and the ocean. Shortly after I started painting, my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, which elevated these paintings to an even deeper place of comfort.
Fast forward to around 1995: I went back to my early musings and began a body of ocean-based work I call "H20s." As primarily an abstract painter, I consciously made the decision to add different visual pursuits to my work that were more connected to my daily life. This became both a useful and positive addition to my more reductive, abstract work. The H20s used all of my experiences in the water surfing and traveling throughout the world. I began a deeper focus on ocean-related imagery, particularly where it meets the shore. These H20 paintings have grown in new ways along with our COVID-afflicted world. Once again, I found painting to be a constant refuge as our world spun out of control. As the 2020 election results grew increasingly protracted and anxiety-inducing, I found myself adding even more imagery to the H20 paintings, letting my love of Milton Avery, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, and Agnes Pelton into my work, in addition to the work of Man Ray, Max Ernst, and de Chirico.
Just like when I was a 10-year-old who didn't know what was what, worried about impending doom, I began to let the images in my work tell little stories or create awkwardly sympathetic scenarios. My dyslexia helped mesh everything together, for better or for worse, assigning new locations for meaning in the imagery. These paintings come together as a mash-up of many things I cherish, helping me realize that if you can find any solace in what you do and love, you've already come out ahead.
- Ned Evans
All of the artwork in this online exhibition is available for purchase.
Additional works from this series available on request.
For inquiries, please call 310-913-0749 or email at info@craigkrullgallery.com.
Fast forward to around 1995: I went back to my early musings and began a body of ocean-based work I call "H20s." As primarily an abstract painter, I consciously made the decision to add different visual pursuits to my work that were more connected to my daily life. This became both a useful and positive addition to my more reductive, abstract work. The H20s used all of my experiences in the water surfing and traveling throughout the world. I began a deeper focus on ocean-related imagery, particularly where it meets the shore. These H20 paintings have grown in new ways along with our COVID-afflicted world. Once again, I found painting to be a constant refuge as our world spun out of control. As the 2020 election results grew increasingly protracted and anxiety-inducing, I found myself adding even more imagery to the H20 paintings, letting my love of Milton Avery, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, and Agnes Pelton into my work, in addition to the work of Man Ray, Max Ernst, and de Chirico.
Just like when I was a 10-year-old who didn't know what was what, worried about impending doom, I began to let the images in my work tell little stories or create awkwardly sympathetic scenarios. My dyslexia helped mesh everything together, for better or for worse, assigning new locations for meaning in the imagery. These paintings come together as a mash-up of many things I cherish, helping me realize that if you can find any solace in what you do and love, you've already come out ahead.
Additional works from this series available on request.
For inquiries, please call 310-913-0749 or email at info@craigkrullgallery.com.
