Roy Schneider
Roy is presented by Bugara Mathison Galleries Edmonton
The Paintings in this show cover a period of four years. They are the result of prolonged isolation in the deep wilderness and a lifelong study of Canadian landscape painting.
Watch for more upcoming workshops
Interest in scraperboard, woodcut printing, drawing, or painting workshops should be forwarded to info@studioschneider.ca. 6 to 8 people will make any of these a go.
Relief Printing Courses
with Roy Schneider
I am offering two 4-week workshops (four hours each workshop for a total of 16 hours instruction per workshop) at my studio in Wildwood (6421 Hillcrest Ave. Powell River)
Typically, workshops will include an introduction to scraper board and planning the woodcut in scraper board. Then we will transfer the image to woodblock and learn techniques for engraving the block, followed proofing and hand pulling the editions on a large Platen press. Paper, tools, and materials can be purchased at qathet Art & Wares. Note that no tools or materials required for the first session.
Contact Roy and see the poster below for more information on a recent workshop series.
Images below from my Life Cycles show at VIU are 35″x35″ framed, except for “Little Bay” which is 28″x28″ – Please contact me for purchase information. Download catalogue
Roy Schneider – Artist Statement
Realism today is understood to mean painting of realist subject matter as opposed to abstract painting. But realism, as it was first conceived in the realism movement of Courbet and Millet defined realism as a revolt against the exotic subject matter and the exaggerated emotionalism and drama of the Romantic movement. i.e. To be realistic.
I find that definition workable. As a landscape artist, to be realistic about landscape painting, to paint real landscape and not a romantic idea of a landscape, interests me very much. The real landscape is a choked tangle of dead and dying trees, decaying, composting and fertilizing new growth in the forest.
A healthy ecosystem, and as it turns out, is a much more powerful and true painting as well. But subject matter is only half the formula. In addition to illustrating a subject, a painting must have a life of its own. It must exist on its own merit.
These days I find that my love of nature and my love of painting are very much in equilibrium. This is good. The simplicity of this is liberating. It is very straightforward. I paint what is in front of me, but let the paint live a life of its own. The structure and complexity of nature is just a stepping off point. It becomes just the framework and the apology for the painting.
I look for structure and pattern as much as I look for meaning. The natural world can be quite tangled and chaotic, but there is order there on multiple scales. There is no real way of capturing that amount of information so I simplify and try to pull out the essence. The verticals of the living and the horizontals of the fallen and dying trees are a description of the cycles of life but also become the graphics and light of the work.
In the end, the artwork really stands outside of nature, in a world of its own, with its own laws and its own reason for being. It is important to me that the paintings exist entirely on their own merit and that the landscape leads to the creation of something unique and independent, but still pays tribute to the beauty of the natural world.
I hope my work will bring the viewer the same awe of the natural world and love of painting that I carry with me and in my work.
After all, it is only an excuse to play with paint.
-Roy Schneider
Studio Schneider 