Jon Byrer's Projects

BFA Alumni

Major: Photography

Graduation Year: 1999

Artist Statement:

My PechaKucha Night Talk: Search Jon Byrer on Youtube: https://youtu.be/EdR-fO9PXMg

My work is my view of the complex beauty in the Maine landscape. From bodies of water to country roads, I strive to capture the movement in each scene. My art is inspired by Maine’s raw natural beauty. This landscape is constantly changing; intermingling light, color, and shadow in an evolution through time. My objective is to convey this sense to my viewer through my poured marbled paintings.

Poured marbled paintings are made without brushes. These paintings push the abstract trend of fluid art into recognizable impressionist landscapes, portraits, and still life. The technique of pouring one thick layer of paint onto the canvas creates fluidity. These mixing colors are set in place when dry yet still seem liquid. The dry paint marbles into permanent eddies, whirls, and swirling images on the canvas. When dry, the enamel paint creates a glass finish that is smooth to the touch.

Poured marbled paintings are inspired by Maine’s raw natural beauty. The unexpected turn in the road, that place you’ve never been, the adventure of finding something new. When painting, there is a draw to find those moments when something unexpected happens; like when a small moment frames a feeling to make a memory. These paintings are created out of liquid moments of thick, swirling paint. I have endowed each of these paintings with their own ‘lives’ by creating images out of numerous serendipitous puddles of paint.

Biography:

Jon Byrer graduated from the Maine Collage of Art where he received a degree in photography and studied the fine arts. Jon creates enamel oil paintings, experimental photography, and watercolor illustrations for a children’s book series. He has been living and working in the mid-coast area for the past 15 years.