Björn Rundquist

August 15 - August 20

Artists Statement

THE ART OF PAYING ATTENTION

“What is this life if full of care we have no time to stand and stare

No time to stand beneath the boughs and stare as long as sheep or cows…” W H Davies

“Art is all about poetry, about vision, about seeing the ordinary as poetic, and then communicating that vision.  That is the artist’s job”  - Ian Roberts”

In this period of tumult, the time to stand and stare seems more urgent than ever.  It is this great blessing for an artist that his job is to take the time to notice, to observe and respond. Each artist has his own particular gift or vision and for some it is the strident, politically charged response to this world of tumult.  For me it is the renewed solace of noticing, in the midst of great care, that there is beauty to be found in the ordinary, beauty in every day in the simplicity of light falling on a leaf, in the shadows falling on a pier.  I have made art as a young man, as a middle age man and now as an old man.  It is one of the unexpected blessings of the last few years to find that, despite the tumult in which we live, there is ever more that gives me pleasure, or that it takes ever less to find consolation.

The transformation of inspiration, wherever it comes from, into an artistic creation is a thoroughly engaging activity.  It involves the whole of a person: heart, soul, and mind.  It is that activity, renewed daily that drives me to go out and create.

Plein air painting occurs within the narrow framework of being outside in a particular time and place.  I love that.  But no less powerful is what happens in studio afterwards. The studio involves a critical evaluation of what happened outside.  Often, there are key adjustments that escaped me at the moment.  Sometimes there is little to change and other times, any and all adjustments make it clear that I simply missed the mark.  And so I start again in a continual affirmation that next time might work, that this thing that so moved me might be within my grasp.  It matters little whether it is a panoramic vista or a small corner of the garden.  The engagement with that small piece of being alive is at the center of each painting.  The daily act of attention and thankfulness that is my practice in painting is, in current times, more necessary than ever.  Hopefully you too will find in these paintings moments of peace.”

I was Born in Sweden and grew up outside of New York city in a small town on the Hudson River.  As a child I studied with Swedish artist Nils Strom.  My engagement with art continued from then.  As a teenager we moved to France where I attended a French high school. Paris was a revelation.  One could not walk twenty yards without seeing a wonderful statue or a beautifully composed building, monument or garden.  I felt like I had come home.  Aside from 4 years in London my adult life has been spent in New England where I have continued to paint for the last 40 years.  The New England landscape has become part of who I am.

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  “Björn Runquist encompasses a broad approach to landscape painting.  The American luminist tradition, the European plein air school and his modern sensibility merge into a very personal style.  A certain air of romanticism permeates his work reinforced by a wonderful feeling for light and color.  Beyond that, his play between light and air weaves his forms into an abstract formality.  An all over sense of design transcends reality and becomes a painting reality.”- Will Barnet, New York, Feb. 2005  

“Björn Runquist’s work is both unconventional and refreshing, witty and yet  

serious…there is a wonderful joyous quality which is out of the ordinary.  It    

is an art which is both intriguing and rich in visionary fascination.”

- Nancy Hall-Duncan, The Bruce Museum,  Greenwich, CT.

“An artist such as Runquist is capable of establishing a rapturous visionary

world …caught in the dilemma of the known and the unknown.”

 - Bernard Hanson, The Hartford Courant

“Runquist’s work is highly original, filled with vitality, wit and beauty.”

 - Carolyn Lanchner, The Museum of Modern Art, NY, NY.

“All of his (Runquist) paintings are grounded by a strong, underlying 

abstract structure… the  artist suggests a universal quality to the scenes he

portrays –   an  engagement with the particular that transcends the “here and

now”.

-  Suzette MacAvoy, Director Center for Maine Contemporary art (CMCA)