Kempton artist Jonathan Bond won 2nd place at the 2015 Scenes of The Schuylkill River Art Show for his new oil painting titled “Memento Mori.”
The painting will be on display during the next three months at two different venues: through Dec. 12 at Montgomery County Community College, Pottstown, and Jan. 13 through Feb. 25 at Valley Forge National Historic Park Visitor Center. Visit http://www.schuylkillriver.org/Detail.aspx?id=1546 for more information.
Memento Mori was painted in 2015 in oil on a wood panel, 24 inches by 32 inches.
“Memento Mori (Latin – “Remember that you have to die”) was finished in my studio just days before the deadline for the Schuylkill River show. The Ontelaunee Stream in northern Berks County and a pair of my old hiking boots served as the inspiration for this metaphorical work. The boots symbolize the transience of life in contrast to the infinitude of an ever-flowing stream. I used a limited palette of predominantly cool colors and incorporated scumbling, scraping, splattering, and glazing in my working process to depict solitude and ephemerality,” said Bond.
Bond gave a general overview of the painting and process.
“I’ve been going about my business in an unassuming manor, quietly finding some hidden gems that serve as inspiration for painting,” he writes to Berks-Mont Newspapers. “Seems the theme is becoming “Stone and Wood” for next years’ exhibits.”
Bond has been painting a series of panels depicting stone with their cast shadows.
“Interesting trees in the region, stumps, irregular branches,” he writes. “Mementos from my hikes, pine cones, feathers, leaves, branches, stones.”
He has also painted interiors of old smoke houses.
“Soon to start on a view of the smokehouse at Dietrich’s Meats,” Bond writes.
Other paintings include barn sides, weathered wood and what he described as old “stuff.”
“Seems more and more my work becomes a place to escape to, to both reminisce and dream,” Bond writes. “I like the lonesomeness but I never feel lonely. I paint this stone wall again and again and think about jumping over and walking into eternity.”
“That’s about how I feel right now while I’m painting,” he writes.
