Illuminations
Peter Burega’s
Ile de Pinel, No. 19
Oil on Panel | 30 x 60 inches
paintings, thick with layers scraped
and added, offer a spot to land upon
and another place to fly from. The
motion within the work is constant.
He uses aspects of sky and clouds,
water and earth, that when combined
is like catching fireflies in a mason
jar —
­ frantic, beautiful, fantastical
and serene.
“Sometimes I think of myself as
a landscape artist and sometimes as an abstract artist,”
Burega says. “There’s a real subconscious aspect to my
work. Part of my process is to allow myself to subconsciously integrate all these different images and ideas.”
Photos: James Hart Photography
Since travel enters into Burega’s work, the photographs
he takes become the basis for his compositions, although the
end result may be a combination of places, cities and clouds.
“I’m photographing incredibly diverse environments,” he
says. “Lately, my work has this very expansive quality — big
giant landscapes, water meets air — but lately land has been
figuring in as well.”
Under a Moonlit Sky, No. 6
Oil on Panel | 60 x 50 inches
Burega’s work is more about the removal of paint rather
than the addition of it, which is why he uses board instead
of canvas. During the course of one painting, Burega adds
He scores his boards to create a grid, but he doesn’t use
and subtracts up to 100 layers. “I don’t use brushes, I paint
the grid to determine where to paint, instead he uses it as
with scrapers and steel trowels and sandpaper,” Burega says.
a point of reference.
“I remove more paint than I add to the board. At some point,
“It’s like framing the image for me,” he says. “Placing
I meld them for a single composition.” His sense of light
control over the chaos — it’s a metaphor for how I paint.
comes forward from behind the paint. By scraping away the
I take specific images, which are very controlled. Then my
surface to the underpainting, there is a sense of discovery —
painting and scraping and removing paint is more chaotic
of finding the thing no one knew was there.
because I let mistakes happen. It took me a long time to
Geometry plays an important role in his work as well.
52
WA
A
accept that.”
Arts of the
American West
N OVEMBE R 1 0 | DE NV E R
C H I C AG O
D EN VER
MI LWAU K EE
N AP LES
PALM B EAC H
S C OTTS D ALE
S T. LOU I S
Sierra Madre, No. 4
Oil on Panel | 60 x 48 inches
Catalogue available online
at lesliehindman.com
I N QU I R I E S
lesliehindman.com/denver
[email protected]
960 Cherokee St‎reet
Denver, Colorado 80204
303.825.1855
J O H N C LY M E R , T H E W I L D L A N D , 25 X 37 ”, O I L O N PA N E L
Currently, Burega is working on a series that involves
Mexico, Tokyo’s nighttime lights and the clouds of the
Caribbean. Using a multitude of photographs taken in these
places, Burega references them within the work.
“I might concentrate on the cloud shots and do something more ethereal, add cityscapes that have more edge,
then I’ll go back to the aspect of water,” he says. “My
paintings may seem like pretty images, but they’re not —
they’re emotional self-portraits. Some are over-energetic,
so I throw in some squares, a place holder for the viewer
to hold their intension.”
Nathan Klein, owner of SmithKlein Gallery in Boulder,
Colorado, represents Burega’s work. Both he and his wife,
Ann, fell in love with the thickly painted abstract pieces.
“Having grown up in the art world, it’s an instant emotional reaction for me,” Klein says. “It took an instant to
appreciate his work. It’s been interesting to see if our clients,
who don’t usually buy abstract art, will be attracted to Peter’s
paintings. It’s the way he incorporates the simple element
of landscape that allows the viewer to access the abstract
nature of the work.”
In addition to SmithKlein Gallery, Burega’s work is
represented by Hunter Kirkland Contemporary in Santa
Fe, New Mexico; Pryor Fine Arts in Atlanta, Georgia;
Craighead Green Gallery in Dallas, Texas; New River Fine
Art in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and Jules Place Art Gallery
LESLIE
HINDMAN
AUCTIONEERS
in Boston, Massachusetts.
WA
A
53