Opening Reception: The Point of the Dream – Paintings by Peter M. Steeves

The Elmhurst Artists’ Guild (“EAG”) will host The Point of the Dream, featuring original dot paintings by EAG Board Member, Peter M. Steeves, in the EAG Gallery at the Elmhurst Art Museum (EAM).  The public is invited to the opening reception on Friday, July 20, 2018 from 7:00 to 9:00pm where they can meet the artist and learn about his unique painting style and somnambulistic paintings.

Steeves, who lives in Valparaiso, IN, and works in Naperville, IL, is a self-taught artist with a career that has spanned over twenty-five years exhibiting throughout the Chicagoland area. His work includes elements of surrealism, primitive symbolic and postmodern realism focusing on the emotion of images and pointillistic, dot patterns. The subjects of the paintings are pulled from his subconscious and transferred to the canvas to allow both artist and viewer to analyze the meaning.

Unlike pointillist artists like Seurat, Signac and Van Gogh, who employed dots of paint (points) to create soft, impressionist images, Steeves’ pointillistic style has evolved to be more akin to Australian Aboriginal art. Steeves explained, “What started out as an homage to the Australian Aboriginal art method of dot painting has grown to have a life of its own through my eyes and paints.  The dots went from being the background of traditional paintings to the focus of my paintings.” This is evident in “Dusk Dreaming,” a warm, ethereal composition in blue, green, white, black and purple that Steeves painted while working in Melbourne, Australia.

The dot patterns invoke a dream-like impression of the subject, allowing the viewer to focus on the emerging repetitious patterns. The multicolor dot patterns are captivating, warm and personal. The points provide movement to the sky, waves and water.  The absence of points, negative space, is used to create a tree, cloud, human or architectural figure, as employed in “Night Forest II” and “The Long Way,” which evoke a forest after a fire, with blackened bare trees and a rich, vibrant undergrowth unleashed by the devastating, but nourishing, fire.

Steeves’ work brings out the imagery of our forgotten dreams. “When we dream, there are no good or bad dreams; your imagination runs free. Images that you recognize when awake take on different, deeper meanings in slumber. When you awake, you wish you could see, hear, or feel what you just experienced but you are left with a mere fragment,” Steeves mused. “My goal is to permit viewers to explore their own sub-conscience as they are torn back to reality from a dream. The driving force behind my art is that it is cheaper than therapy for both the artist and the collectors!” Steeves admitted with a hearty laugh.

The Point of the Dream will travel to the Village Gallery in Valparaiso, IN after it closes at the EAG Gallery. Steeves’ work has also been featured at The Free Artisans Gallery and the Southern Shore Art Assn., both in Michigan City, IN, the Naperville Fine Art Center in Naperville IL, and throughout the Chicago land area. He participated in the CTA’s Art on the Tracks and the Built Art Festival in Chicago, and has exhibited at Art Prize in Grand Rapids, MI every year since 2011. His work can also be seen on the web at www.TerrapinHouseStudio.com.

Paintings can be viewed and purchased during regular Museum hours, Tuesday through Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. Admission is $12 adults / $10 seniors / free for EAM and EAG members, students and children under 18. All visitors are admitted free on the first Friday of each month. More information is available at elmhurstartistsguild.org and elmhurstartmuseum.org.

The EAG gallery is not-for-profit, operated by the Elmhurst Artists’ Guild. It features contemporary artworks in a variety of styles and media. In addition to four member shows each year, the guild hosts exhibitions of individual members’ artwork and invitational shows for significant local artists. Exhibits are partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council.