City Park Trail - contermporary Canadian landscape by Maxim Grunin

"City Park Trail" takes the viewer into a picture space, reminding of a park trail. This piece is made with the use of broad paint application. Brush, palette knife and paint spills create a vibrant surface that the viewer would want to examine up close. Subdued dark purples, grays, browns, greens and black make up the shadow areas of the piece. Subtle grades of orange-brown, brown-green, gray, ochre and highlights set the mid-tone and the light in the painting. "City Park Trail" is 36" X 24", acrylic, 2009.

Beautiful contemporary painting

thinking you, 30X30, acrylic on canvas, 2009 (sold)

This work started as a small collage where I used bits ripped out of fashion magazines glued onto a piece of paper painted over with broad strokes of acrylic paint. Marker drawing was added at the end when paint was dry. I wanted to combine magazine images, that attracted me, together to create a narrative. "thinking you" is approached as a collage, where the realistic elements are painted before the broad abstract surfaces and the thin black drawn lines. "thinking you" may illustrate a state of a person's mind while being on the road. The image is well composed within a square and contributes to pleasurable viewing experience. It is also rich in surface and ambiguous as a combination of symbols.