Steven Nederveen | The Ocean In Us

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Steven Nederveen, "The Ocean In Us"

mixed media on panel, 48 X 72 in. Courtesy of the Gallery.

Steven Nederveen’s work deals with the passage of time, a theme stemming from his own practice of meditation. Moments of peaceful clarity lead the artist to draw connections between our natural environment and aspects of spirituality through an artistic process that combines painting and photography. By collapsing mediums, Nederveen develops a magical realism that insists on new perspectives on the landscape genre.

In this new exhibition, the artist focuses on the drama of crashing waves, paying homage to the historic seascape paintings of shipwrecks by old Dutch Masters, referencing dark, black skies, turbulent waters and fine detail.

Artist statement:

As a waterman and the son of a sailor, I’ve spent a lot of time on the waters of the West Coast. I know these waters, and yet I can never really know them. The ocean is an endless variety of movement, light and feeling. We can see ourselves in its vastness and depths, its calm and its torrents. Water reflects back to us our inner worlds and emotions. 

In my latest depictions of the sea, I have re-cast the ocean as subject and zoomed in on one small section of turbulent water, using contemporary techniques to distill ocean crashes into gesture and form so that we can feel the full impact and chaos of the untamed sea. I use a golden glow to represent the human spirit, depicting it as an extension of nature itself, inseparable from the beautiful chaos of these waves. The vastness of the water reflects the vastness of ourselves - these pieces are both inner and outer landscape. 

-Steven Nederveen 2022