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JOHN F. ROSS

 

BIO

 

John F. Ross (b. 1984, Toronto, Canada) is a Canadian painter creating unique, narrative work that breathes new life into the Canadian landscape tradition. A graduate of Studio Art from York University, John has been exhibiting his work since 2006 in Ontario and Alberta and can be found in private collections across Canada and Europe.

 

John lives and works in Calgary.

 

STATEMENT

 

    The tradition of landscape painting in western Canada is one of Pure Landscape – depicting the land as it truly is, largely free from symbolic content. John's work pursues a conceptual departure from this tradition, introducing the viewer to a new way of observing the land. The simplification of symbolic forms and a tangible awareness for the physicality of painting create a platform with which to retell the western landscape story. His goal is to create paintings that, in the footsteps of the European Symbolists, emphasize an interpretable meaning behind line, shape and subject. The result is a collection of narratives about a place populated with the remnants of human influence and reclaimed by a wilder element.

    “My stories always begin as an impulsive set of images that collect within the borders of a scene. Though guided by a structured conceptual theme, these scenes don’t profess any specific or absolute meaning. They are an invitation to  seek out an untold story.”

                           

                                    - John F. Ross