Busacca Gallery

Oil on circular canvas, 46" in diameter by acclaimed painter of water, By Artist Paul Roux. Signed lower mid quadrant. BIOGRAPHY: Paul Roux graduated in 1998 from the Michaelis School of Fine Art (University of Cape Town, South Africa). After a detour into advertising and marketing, his re-commitment to the fine arts over the last 10 years has seen a number of awards and solo exhibitions, as well as financial awards for further study at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. His work is represented in collections in Europe, South Africa, and the US. Based between South Africa and the greater Los Angeles area, he is currently continuing to develop his own work.

The history of photographic painting abstraction and realism is a fascinating exploration of the intersection between traditional painting techniques and the evolving medium of photography. Photographic painting refers to a genre where artists use photographs as source material for creating paintings. This practice gained prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as photography itself became more accessible and widely used. Artists began to experiment with blending photographic elements into their paintings, either by directly incorporating photographs into the artwork or by using them as references. Abstraction in photographic painting emerged as artists explored ways to break away from traditional representation. In the early 20th century, movements like Cubism and Futurism challenged the conventions of realistic depiction. Artists such as Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy experimented with photograms, a photographic technique that involves placing objects directly onto light-sensitive paper, creating abstract compositions. Realism in photographic painting, on the other hand, aimed to capture the world with precision, often blurring the lines between painting and photography. Photorealism, a movement that gained momentum in the late 1960s and 1970s, involved artists meticulously reproducing photographs using traditional painting techniques. Chuck Close and Audrey Flack are notable artists associated with photorealism. As technology advanced, the relationship between painting and photography continued to evolve. With the advent of digital photography and image manipulation software, artists explored new possibilities in merging the two mediums. Some artists embraced hyperrealism, pushing the boundaries of what could be achieved with detailed, lifelike representations. In contemporary art, artists often navigate a spectrum between abstraction and realism in photographic painting, experimenting with mixed media, collage, and digital techniques. The dialogue between these two modes of artistic expression remains dynamic, offering artists a rich field of exploration and creative expression.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water

Water is a transparent fluid which forms the world's streams, lakes, oceans and rain, and is the major constituent of the fluids of living things. As a chemical compound, a water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms that are connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at standard ambient temperature and pressure, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice; and gaseous state, steam (water vapor). It also exists as snow, fog, dew and cloud.