Edward DeMarsh
Edward is a self-taught visual artist, as well as a regularly published fiction writer and multi-optioned screenwriter. He's grateful to have an international reach in all the arts he practices, as connecting to things and people outside his experience excites him and makes him happy. To him, life is mysterious and spiritual, and when it needs to be spoken of, he thinks art, any art, is the best language to speak about that mystery.
Edward works with acrylics and mixed medias, often in relief style, where his works have the qualities of abstract painting, design, and sculpture all bound dramatically and beautifully together. He thinks this is the result of a night in Niagara Falls when he was 6 years old. Ask him about that if you meet him in person.
He shows in galleries in North America, Europe and Asia, and his time in Asia influences much of his work in spirit, emotional content, and materials. A personal highlight was the pleasure of seeing his artwork representing Canada in the 2019 Annual Chengdu International Creativity and Design Exhibition held in the city of Chengdu, Sichuan Province, PRC.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
"There's always a lot of breezy noise blowing around us. It's in the air, and it can sometimes get inside us. I work to create art that turns that noise to music. That stops the winds blowing around us in order to see something, and in seeing it, feel something. When we feel that something, we stop and come back to ourselves."
Edward is a self-taught visual artist, as well as a regularly published fiction writer and multi-optioned screenwriter. He's grateful to have an international reach in all the arts he practices, as connecting to things and people outside his experience excites him and makes him happy. To him, life is mysterious and spiritual, and when it needs to be spoken of, he thinks art, any art, is the best language to speak about that mystery.
Edward works with acrylics and mixed medias, often in relief style, where his works have the qualities of abstract painting, design, and sculpture all bound dramatically and beautifully together. He thinks this is the result of a night in Niagara Falls when he was 6 years old. Ask him about that if you meet him in person.
He shows in galleries in North America, Europe and Asia, and his time in Asia influences much of his work in spirit, emotional content, and materials. A personal highlight was the pleasure of seeing his artwork representing Canada in the 2019 Annual Chengdu International Creativity and Design Exhibition held in the city of Chengdu, Sichuan Province, PRC.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
"There's always a lot of breezy noise blowing around us. It's in the air, and it can sometimes get inside us. I work to create art that turns that noise to music. That stops the winds blowing around us in order to see something, and in seeing it, feel something. When we feel that something, we stop and come back to ourselves."
$900.00 CAD
Acrylic on canvas.
20x16"
I've been thinking about the tale of Lot's Wife and wondering if there is meaning for me and our times in it. It seems like a punishment story, though I see it now as a warning. To continually look back at what you have left, especially if it has been destructive and shattering to you, may leave you immobile and fragile, like a pillar of salt.
I have always been a great admirer of Anselm Kiefer. This was done in homage to him and is after the style of his work, Lot's Wife. There are several works of art that moved me and made me want to make my own contribution. That is one of them.
'Pillars of Salt (After Anselm Kiefer)' is a finalist in Art Show International Gallery's juried 4th Abstract Competition.
$860.00 CAD
Acrylic on birch panel.
16x20"
'Curious Kids' was created in a workshop I took recently in my home town from a teacher and friend I admire. It's the first painting I've undertaken in a while and I'm really happy with the result. I'd wanted to return to painting in a new way and this gave me the chance to more than realize my vision.
These 4 children of another place, time and dimension, are both curious in their look, and curious about their world. They look about in wonder, even as we wonder at them.
$500.00 CAD
Acrylic on canvas.
12x16"
I really love heavy textures and return to using them if I feel I've neglected them for too long. What I really love about this work is not only the very heavy textures in the black especially, but the bright contrasting colours against them. What really makes the work rise though, is the black lines around each of the separate colours. They provide a richness in the definitions that makes everything pop.
$900.00 CAD
Acrylic on canvas.
17x17"
Above The Islands was a finalist in the May 2022, International Art Show Gallery, 'Water' online exhibition.
This work came about as part of my efforts to lift my own spirit and it started with the blues, literally and figuratively. Blue is a primary colour and like all of them, it has many different shades and hues. I took several and used them together, running them over the canvas in rolling waves. Then I used a technique I had seen another artist use and I myself had used in an earlier work called ‘Unsure Of Her Gentle Touch And Regard’. I separated the waves with lines in a complimentary colour, a shade of green. Immediately there was the suggestion on the canvas of islands, and because I’ve never visited tropical islands, I wanted the colours to be fanciful and bold, as I imagine my first impression of the islands would be.
The result has a strong and very colourful stained glass feel, and that effect is even more so when the work is held up to strong light and the colours are illuminated from within. This work would look as good on a window as a wall. I really love that. There is impasto in some of the colours and not in others, giving a textural feel beyond what the paints brought out.
$1,250.00 CAD
Mixed media on canvas (framed).
14x18"
This work was done as a work of worship to God. During a time of personal darkness, I returned to the faith I had as a child and lost. I needed the comfort of my faith and found it waiting for me. In gratitude and love, I wanted to make something from my art that would, though abstract, have a place in the religious tradition of Christianity, and in my case, Catholicism.
Acrylics have been painted on watercolour paper which was cut, shaped and glued to the canvas. Brass washers were added, then the work has been finished with a gloss varnish to enhance and protect the work.
The figures at the bottom of the canvas represent humanity and the colours in them are the varied colours of humanity. In the air above them is a representation of the 3 aspects of the God of my faith. The colours were chosen for their beauty and the energetic and ever moving mystery that comes from their combination of orange, blue and brass and their design.
The canvas has been painted with iridescent silver, though it appears grey in the picture. In reality, it comes off looking like a shimmery concrete, an effect I didn't intend but liked very much when I saw it.
In the figures of humanity and in the aspects of God, everything is done in groups of 3, again reflecting my faith.
$2,000.00 CAD
Mixed media on canvas (set of 3)
36x36x3.50"
'Aquarium' has been created by taking the 3 panels - Green Angelfish, Black Angelfish, Blue Angelfish - and hanging them side by side.
Each panel has been created using acrylic paint and paper and some of the work extends out from the canvas relief style.
$1,670.00 CAD
Mixed media on birch panel (set of 2).
25x12"
These companion pieces were created at the same time, using the cut pieces of one to create the other, a technique I rarely use though it absolutely suited these works.
Tyger I on the left is acrylic painted watercolour paper with hand cut pieces removed. The negative space of the tyger was them mounted on a stained birch panel.
Tyger II on the right was made by using the pieces of Tyger I mounted on an identically stained birch panel.
Each panel is 12" x 12" and 1" has been added to width to account for side by side placement.
There is a dignity to each and the original impulse came from the opening line the Blake poem that begins, "Tyger tyger, burning bright, in the forest of the night;"
$1,800.00 CAD
Mixed media on paper (framed).
12x12"
'Wild Horse Head' was created in response to a wooden sculpture I saw of a wild horse, head raised and mane blowing all around it. I loved the feel of this animal free and wild in the world, and knew right away I wanted to sculpt it out of paper. I'd like to attribute the artist, but I never knew who it was. I wish them the best.
I'm using one of my favourite colours here, burnt sienna, and paired it with cadmium yellow before applying it to watercolour paper in a technique that allows the two colours to also create shades of each other and new tones throughout the work .
The mane and muscular of the face and neck took several curling and bending techniques, and I had to to think a lot about the shape of the muscles lying below the skin of the horse, and where to place them on the body to give the idea of a muscular structure. It pays a subtle tribute to that first wood sculpture I saw. I'm really pleased with the result and hope I honoured the original work well.
The work has been gloss varnished to enhance and protect the work, which has been set into a reversed birch panel. Plexiglass has been added to protect the work and can be removed or replaced with glass.
$1,500.00 CAD
Acrylic on watercolour paper on birch panel.
36x16"
Growing up, I was impressed by two things about these magnificent beings. The first was how powerful and beautiful they are, the second is the threat that they face because of their poached horns. To me, they are mysterious, from another world, part of the original creatures that make up our planet.
I sketched the image on watercolour paper months ago and just stared at it. I knew at that time I wasn't ready to create a paper work from the sketch. I was nervous to not capture this aminal the way I wanted to, that I would fail the work.
Finally, I began. I worked slowly at this piece, and landed on a painting technique that brought out everything I wanted to catch in the work. The power, the weight, and the struggle of this amazing being are all there in the work for me. I'm proud of it.
'Rhino' is acrylic painted on watercolour paper, mounted within a reversed gallery birch panel.
$1,180.00 CAD
Acrylic on canvas.
43x43"
Geometry doen't just speak to me but to us all. Geometry is everywhere in nature and we go right to it in our architecture and clothing. It also provides an entry point into abstract work and is one of the reasons I like to use it.
This piece was created purely by instinct, starting with the background made from chalk acrylics, then moving into taping with regular acrylic paints and metallic acrylics. The circles of different sizes were added in a random but balanced way across the canvas, then I chose colours I'd already used and new contrasting and complimenting colours to fill in some of the circles.
The title of the work, 'Polo', came to me late in the work as I was creating the coloured circles. Do you know the game 'MarcoPolo'? Where one blinfolded person says Marco and others answer Polo, giving a clue to the blind folded person a clue as to where the others are and can be 'caught' in the game? For some reason that stuck with me in the last hours of creating the work and giving it its title.