LKART – Leonard Koscianski Contemporary Art

American Landscape with Mark Rothko, oil on canvas, 42″x26″.

American Landscape with Mark Rothko is a medium sized oil painting on canvas. It is a dreamlike scene of suburban Middle America. People are home, outdoor activities are taking place, an American Goldfinch is in the lower left. The dominant colors are red, white, blue and green. It also includes an image of cultural Marxist, Mark Rothko. He’s in one of the windows, painting. Can you find him? His tiny presence is an ironic comment on the importance (or lack thereof) of Internationalism or “Globalism” to American society.

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Stormy Monday, oil on canvas, 42″ x 26″.

Stormy Monday is a medium size oil painting on canvas. Three primary colors red, blue, and green create the color composition. The white is made up of many colors, whites, greys, tans, and blues and greens. This is an imaginary suburban scene populated by couples. There is the couple splashing in the water, the couple kissing in the shadows in the lower left, and the couple holding hands coming down the church steps. The father in the lower center is pushing a baby stroller.

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When Morning Comes, oil on canvas, 26″ x 42″.

When Morning Comes is a medium size oil painting on canvas. In many ways it is a painting about time. An early morning sky of reds and oranges dominates the scene, below dark blues and greens. It is an imaginary recreation of a late winter dawn here in Maryland, where it is normally cold with a few unusually warm days. We are looking across College Creek into the US Naval Academy at two early morning runners.

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The Bight, tempera on panel, 7″ x 5″.

The Bight is a small panel painting. Tempera on panel, 5″ x 7″. Its a small painting that is based a favorite fishing spot. A secret spot that exists only at low tide. I discovered it with the help of some neighborhood kids. Though its location is 1&1/2 miles from the capital of Maryland it feels like you are off in the backwoods of Maine.

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Isolation, tempera on panel, 12″ x 9″, 2025.

Isolation is a small painting, 12″ x 9″, painted with egg tempera on a wood panel. It is a night scene – most of the colors are dark. A warm, yellow-orange light pours out of a window silhouetting a single, isolated figure that gazes out. Shadows are cast across the green lawn. As night approaches, the sturdy house protects the lone figure from the threats of nature represented by the evening sky. This suburban American scene depicts isolation and community at the same time. 

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Stormy, tempera on panel, 12″ x 9″, 2025.

Stormy is a small egg tempera painting on wood panel. The painting depicts a suburban neighborhood with a storm sweeping in. The residents are running for cover. The clouds, for all their beauty, are a threat to the people who live in the houses. The clouds are primarily cool in color (blues and greys), whereas the suburban terrain is warm in color (warm reds and greens). It is sunny and full daylight in the foreground, but night with stars and a rising moon in the back.

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The Astronomer, oil on canvas, 42″ x 26″, 2025.

The Astronomer is a medium size oil painting on canvas. The dominant blue color gives the painting a nighttime atmosphere. The stars and the headlight add to our awareness of the time of day. Contrasting with the blue is the reddish orange of the brick houses. Between them we see the astronomer in the foreground with his telescope. A window in the lower left reveals a clock telling us that it is 10:25 p.m.

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Suburban Landscape with the Artist Jackson Pollock Painting, oil on canvas, 42″ x 26″.

This is a medium-sized painting depicting a night scene, with light spilling out from the houses onto the street. In the distance, an open garage reveals Jackson Pollock creating one of his Action Paintings. This artwork draws inspiration from the Mannerist Inversion paintings of Peter Brueghel, particularly his “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus.” The image of Jackson Pollock is derived from a famous photograph of the artist at work. By depicting him as small in comparison to the other elements, the painting makes an ironic comment on Art History’s perspective on the world.

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Birds of a Feather, oil on canvas, 42″ x 26″, 2024.

Birds of a Feather is a medium size painting, oil on canvas, 42″ x 26″, painted in 2024. As its title suggests, it depicts several “flocks”. There is a flock of black birds casting their shadows on the red roof, a group of children kicking a ball in the middle ground, a group of sailboats racing, in the distance. There is also a village of houses, trees, and shrubs (a kind of flock) scattered throughout the scene. Plus, there is a group of adults doing adult things like riding a bike, running, talking, looking out a window.

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The Midnight Hour, oil on canvas, 42″ x 26″, 2024.

The Midnight Hour is a medium size oil painting on canvas. Finished in 2024, it is based on a previous painting – The Witching Hour. On a video monitor this painting looks almost the same as its predecessor, but not in person. Paintings are physical objects. They have physical dimension. In this newer version the water in the pool is first painted with an impasto white which is then glazed with a transparent blue paint. This creates a tactile watery texture when seen in person. Whether or not this technique is “better” remains to be seen. Constant experimentation is necessary. Throughout Art History artists have made second, even third versions of the same image. This always invites comparisons.

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