Bend in the Road

Bend in the Road. Leonard Koscianski, 42″x26″, oil on canvas, 2018.

Bend in the Road is a painting done in oils on canvas. It is medium in size, and surreal in style. It’s surrealism comes mainly from a forced perspective that distorts, and creates a curved space. The viewer starts off looking down at the foreground houses, and trees, then gradually looks straight out at the distant hills in the background. There is a change in time that parallels the change in space. It’s morning in the foreground, but still night in the background. The runners and birds convey the gradual passage of time.

The lighting in the painting parallels the shift in space, and indicates a change in time. It transitions from sunlight in the foreground, past the artificial light pouring from the house, to car lights and a crescent moon in the background. The illuminated clock on the church steeple suggests the dawn, a transition from morning to night. Multiple warmer colors in the foreground suggest morning, they become gradually bluer as the viewer moves toward background, indicating night.

The eclectic combination of styles make this Postmodern Art. Here, Surrealist Art is combined with American Primitive Art and Mid Twentieth Century American Scene Painting to create a Contemporary Art style. The distortion of perspective space is a characteristic of Surrealist Art; the idealized, over simplification of certain objects is characteristic of Primitive Art.

This painting was sold by the J Willott Gallery in Palm Desert, California.