Steven Baines oil paintings aim to be metaphors for the passage of time, the brevity of human life. They continue the tradition of Vanitas and Momento Mori paintings. However they are not heavy or morbid. They are optimistic and humorous, like sad, dark lyrics in a catchy lighthearted melody. The lighthearted sensibility is often emphasized by a soft colored pallet forming a space for figurative images which have been chosen for their symbolic value to represent the fragile and transitory nature of life: luxuriantly plumed birds, moths, ripe fruit, bubbles, and even UFOs.

 

"In my newer paintings an understated scale and dull color pallet are attempts at keeping them humble, while the simplified subject matter becomes almost iconic.
I want them to be beautiful, tragic, dramatic, even romantic - but something about them (an innate sense of humor?) questions the sincerity.
Are they more poetic when viewed as sincere attempts at beauty or more poetic viewed as tragically mocking that same sincerity?
When I work I truly do work in waves of sincerity then it becomes absurd to me.

When I see the absurdity of it all is when it becomes most beautiful and poetic for me." • Steven Baines