Resume - Sean McCusker

I grew up in the quiet Hill Towns of Massachusetts. The landscape of the Berkshires, the rolling hills and changing seasons is a great comfort for me. When I paint I think about these comforts of home.

When I started painting I would take long nightly walks under the streetlights of Amherst, Massachusetts. The bright yellow of the street lamps against the cold blue tones of night eased the day's stresses. Since then my work has reflected the cool loneliness of night, warmed by the hues of artificial illumination.

My paintings are made up of roughly thirty thin, transparent layers, each one adding complexity. As the layers are carefully worked up the composition's forms and colors become more contrasted, more dramatic. The translucent layers create a glowing composition of dark shadows suspended in light.

The landscapes I create are surreal constructs -- a stage, rather than representations of a specific place. Like the masked actors in a Greek drama, the characters and objects in my work are emotional archetypes. Using intense oil colors in a layered technique suitable for objective realism, I have developed a painting style that attempts to depict emotion as a solid object.

Many of my paintings center around a single figure set against a vast empty space. The light illuminating the darkness is always just out of the figure's reach. Sometimes the light source is the sun or moon, though most of the time it is ambiguous. Along with the simply depicted hunched figure there may be a tree, or a hut.

The meaning of each element depends on the placement and interaction it has with the rest of the landscape. The sun and moon often stand as sentinels against the darkness. The figures sit, silently contemplating their situation. These meanings change from painting to painting. It is left to the viewer, if they choose, to imagine themselves sitting with the figure, determining what situation it finds itself in.

To see my work in person you can either schedule a studio visit through the contact page or visit The Lenox Gallery.