Brian Sindler

"In these paintings, formal considerations take a back seat to contrasting tonalities and color harmonies. The effect is both poetic and sublime." - Michael Greany Says Brian Sindler of his work, "My journey as an artist began serendipitously. While visiting a friend's house to look at thousands of works of art that he had procured from a contemporary folk artist. I thought to myself, Hey! I can do this! The next day I went to an art supply store, bought pastels and paper, then started painting Picasso-like figures and still lifes. I was a musician songwriter and after a band break up I had a lot of spare time. I quickly became obsessed with Picasso and painting. I worked my way backwards from his late paintings to his early paintings. When I got to the blue period I realized I needed to learn how to draw. So, at the age of 40 I decided to study painting and enrolled at the American Acadamy of Art in Chicago. Upon graduation I began my career as a landscape painter and have not looked back since. I'm always looking to eliminate unnecessary details while trying to make a statement that's deceptively simple. Trying to simplify a passage in a painting in an interesting way can make or break that painting. I'm of the mind that if I just keep painting good things will happen. I look for happy accidents. Seeing shapes in the marks on a painting can set me off in a different direction and straying from the original plan can be rewarding. Sometimes I ruin a painting or two but it's a risk worth taking." My biggest artistic influence is the Beatles. I am amazed by the quality of the work, their progression through experimentation and their ability to create so many different moods throughout their catalog of songs. I see so many analogies between painting and music. When I heard Roger Waters talking about negative space in Pink Floyd’s music it resonated with me. When it comes to the visual arts there are so many artists that have influenced me it's hard to remember them all. My first influence was an artist named Angel Botello, from Botello I went to Picasso. From Picasso to Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, Whistler, Diulio Barnabe and Rothko. The painter that has had the biggest overall influence on me is Russell Chatham. I saw something in his work that struck a chord in me and I still feel the same way as I did the first time I saw his work. As far as books I thumbed through as many books as I could get my hands on. The book most important to me is Russell Chatham's "One Hundred Paintings". Big Sky Sunset , oil on canvas, 37x49 Gathering, oil on canvas, 36x36 Cloud Pillar Daydream, oil on canvas, 24x20 Afternoon Light, oil on canvas, 30x24 Sunset Silhouette, oil on canvas, 18x22 frame size