"Desert Muses" Brian Cote, 2021

Paul Scott Gallery

BRIAN COTE

"Desert Muse"

BRIAN COTE 2021 The Arizona desert can appear to be a foreboding, forsaken land to passersby.

But for those of us who stop to spend a few special moments with her, hiking a lonely trail or marveling from atop a majestic mountain peak, we know her in a way that stirs the soul, beautiful and unforgettable.

"Desert Muse" A restrained and tranquil force of nature This desolate landscape wrapped in stillness Full of potential this omega A deluge of disparity, animated and drowning Mnemosyne resides in her comfortless bosom And presses upon my vision The essence of revelation Of conception The alpha

(front detail and entire image above) Sonoran Wash • 44" x 72" • oil

In developing work for the show, "Desert Muses", I wanted to capture key aspects that are elemental features particular to the landscape. I sought to express these hallmark characteristics in such a manner as to permeate the viewer's imagination and transform their experience.

A dynamic exists between the earth and the sky. A hidden boundary where the unbreakable terrain and the ephemeral heavens come together and yet never mingle, they hover and vibrate in an intimate relationship. There are times when the skies are open and vast and they loom over the land, pressing down upon it, compressing it into a narrow band, subduing its unforgiving nature. And there are days when the earth pushes up against the atmosphere and an ever changing cloudscape drags itself across the sky, streaking the land below with ribbons of shadow.

The seemingly colorless ground is a space where stark contrasts of warm sunlight clash with the cool, hollow den of shadow. And smooth, hard edged surfaces meet with the rough tangle of underbrush. These contradictions diverge and give birth to inspiration. I find myself possessed by the experience, transposing temperatures into heightened notes of color and complicated topography into melodic passages.

Through art, I express the world of quantum rapport by painting my experience of unanimity. The desert sings to us and awakens a vision of renewed life full of color and energy. This drama I render in rich, pigmented oil, globs and slabs of paint, carved and structured, woven together as the fabric of space and time, as my tiny part of the universe, the Arizona desert.

– Brian Cote

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Solitude • 48" x 48" • oil

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In Passing • 40" x 30" • oil

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Dusk Follows Dawn • 24" x 30" • oil

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The Other Side of the Hill • 48" x 48" • oil

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Red Mountain • 36" x 48" • oil

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Blue Horizon • 18" x 24" • oil

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(top to bottom) Red Mountain Majesty • 8" x 10" • oil Sonoran Landscape • 11" x 14" • oil

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(clockwise from top left) Spring Morning • 9" x 12" • oil Canary Sunrise • 8" x 10" • oil Storm Over the Reservation • 11" x 14" • oil Sonoran Subtlety • 9" x 12" • oil – 10 –

Camelback • 36" x 60" • oil

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(top to bottom) The Desert Sings • 48" x 72" • oil Shadow Valley • 16" x 20" • oil – 12 –

Shadow Upon the Valley • 36" x 48" • oil

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Into the Distance • 60" x 36" • oil – 14 –

The Great Wide Open • 48" x 60" • oil

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Vertigo • 36" x 48" • oil

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