About the Artist
A Commitment to Realism
An Easel in the Sand
As an artist, Sullivan is looking for truth through simplicity with an emphasis on natural color and a strong reliance on accurate rendering. The stroke of the brush, the weight of the paint, the juxtaposition of values, hues, mass and line combine to allow the viewer to join in exploring the artist’s vision of his truth.
In describing his vision as an artist, Sullivan says: “A photograph is able to capture a particular moment with a certain amount of realism, and it’s difficult to compete with a camera for an accurate two-dimensional representation of what one’s eye perceives. Art, on the other hand, attempts to capture the magic and personality of any given moment in any given place. I also like to play with memory which has a tendency to solidify and fix itself in ways which fit into a convenient personal narrative – I like the idea of exploring the more complex, less accessible aspects of memory as I paint familiar places from my youth and as I paint a given landscape location under different conditions.”
Heraclitus of Ephesus likened vision to time and for an analogy compared it to the flow of river water. While a constant presence, vision is always different from instant to instant. And not only is the water constantly changing but so is the observer. The truth of a photograph is to freeze time whereas the process of painting requires observation, analysis and selection from the flow of vision as it passes in endless variation.
