Ian Barton Stewart

  • Laughter In The Rain by Ian Barton Stewart: This painting shows the expressive possibilities of greys and whites. Laughter in the Rain is a composition by Claude Debussy in his work Estampes. This is one of the finest paintings available in the world today.
  • Sunrise over Water: Like the great painter Turner, I am inspired by the sun and by water. Yet, I am often surprised by how few paintings successfully capture the sublime element in the sea, sky and sun. This painting, unlike many lesser works, does not seek to create a photo like quality - in my view, photography will give you that, but only when the photographer is really skilled. This painting captures the mood of sunrise over water, something that few artists since the great Turner, Monet and Manet have done successfully.
  • Morning by Ian Barton Stewart: A bright and colourful large painting about 1.6m by 1.4m, oil on linen. It is an abstract painting with many different tones of yellow, blue, and white and green layered over a predominantly red ground. These are some of the colours you see if you are lucky enough to see the sun rising.
  • Nocturne in Db: Another outstanding painting showing the expressive possibilities of a small colour palette of different shades of grey, white and blue. Who has not heard of Chopin's Nocturne in Db? Who has not heard of Whistler's Nocturnes? This painting takes them both into the 21st century. The prevailing serenity of the work is punctuated by the intensity of a disturbance in the water in the lower third. Perhaps a river god is laughing...
  • Voices: An exquisite painting presently exhibited at the Neue Privat Bank, Zurich. It is reasonably large at 1.7m by 1.4m,. Voices are musical and metaphorical. Like  these concepts, Voices reflects its surroundings, and becomes warm and inviting in good light of 5000 kelvin with a high colour rendering index. If you have your paintings on your wall with light much higher than this, the colours will take on a bluish timbre like the sky. Although that sounds good, it means that your paintings will also have blue tones exaggerated. If your light is much lower than 5000k the yellow tones in your paintings will be exaggerated. So, it is best to be aware of the importance of good lighting.
  • Moment of Being: A small painting 1.2m by 0.9m on canvas. The colours are striking combinations of aqueous blue, white, green and red.  This painting is now in a private collection in Switzerland.
  • Cage: This painting, oil on linen and 1.7m by 1.4m can be seen as joy waiting to be released, or a bird in a cage, waiting to fly away.
  • Water lilies: A small but beautiful painting (1.2m by 0.9m) which suggests water lilies scattered across the surface of water. The colours blend together in complete harmony. This painting is now in a private collection in Switzerland.
  • No Temple for Apollo: The Greek God Apollo is here. It is the opposite of mundane, and allows the viewer to imagine what Apollo would have chosen as his temple. It is a large work, 1.5m by 1.2m, oil on linen.
  • No Temple for Apollo by Ian Barton Stewart: Oil on linen about 1.2m by 0.9m 2013</p><p>This is a smaller version of the painting No Temple for Apollo also exhibited here.
  • Falling Water: Oil on linen 1.7m by 1.4m 2015. Falling Water conjures up a rich symbolism. Falling Water symbolises rain and through it life. It is a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. And it can be a waterfall... This painting is presently on display at the Neue Privat Bank Zurich, and my video of this exhibition available on Youtube, shows the expressive possibilities of these symbols all in a single work. Destined to become a highly valued painting.
  • Abstract Painting: Completed soon after I finished my Masters degree in painting at the University of Melbourne.
  • Midnight Sky: This painting is oil &nbsp;on linen and 1.5m by 1.2m.
  • Reflections: Often we respond to a painting because it reflects something in ourselves. This painting is such a work. &nbsp;This painting has depth of feeling and visual interest. It is in oils on linen and measures 0.9m by 1.2m.
  • The Kingdom: Oil on linen 1.5m by 1.2m. The symbolism is very dense and there are many things to see in the painting that are not obvious at first glance.&nbsp;The Kingdom evokes&nbsp;the kingdom of life with its myriad of creatures engaged in various activities. At the apex of the painting is a symbol - it might be God or it might be a higher consciousness. In the bottom right corner a pair sit, observing the kingdom. What is clear is that they are separate from the kingdom but also a part of it.
  • The Ring Cycle: About 1.7m by 1.4m, this work was inspired by Wagner's Ring Cycle. We see&nbsp;a fiery loop moving across the sky. The pathway at the bottom suggests&nbsp;the Gods' pathway to Valhalla.
  • Black Infinity: A small painting about 0.9m by 0.6m. Its subject is infinity and boundlessness.
  • Mystery and Immensity of the Sea and Sky: This is a large painting I have titled Mystery and Immensity of The Sea and Sky. Its subject is the sublime in nature...and how we human beings are faced by natural forces we do not comprehend and are awed by.
  • Waves: A brilliant small painting (1.2m by 0.9m oil on canvas) whose subject is waves. Each viewer might see the painting as actual or metaphorical waves. I have not sought to paint a dull "true to visual life" painting of the sea. Rather, although the waves are recognisable as waves, the painting captures our feeling when standing before the sea and the horizon.&nbsp;Beyond the horizon the colour changes from an intense blue to a very unusual shade of blue-green-grey-yellow-orange. White, suggesting clouds or doubts hovers over the horizon. This painting is a striking example of how a small work can be immensely powerful. It will be an asset to any serious collector's collection or to an important museum collection. The painting is at present unsigned. Most of my paintings posted have had superimposed in photoshop my name and copyright, and details of the work's size. Some collectors desire signed works. Others do not. A signature takes but a few minutes to apply in paint should the collector desire.
  • Before the Sky: A wide work of 1.8m by 0.9m. The constraints in height enabled me to concentrate on the horizon. One has a sense, just like Friedrich's Monk Before The Sea, that the viewer is looking out at phenomena that are powerful and beyond comprehension. About two thirds up is a suggestion of a shore line. I have painted only a suggestion because I wanted this painting to suggest the mystery and power of the sea, rather than literally represent it. Thus the painting hints at what lies beyond our&nbsp;immediate perception.
  • Parallel Lines: Rich colours in bands across and running down a diagonal characterise this painting.
  • Metropolis -aerial perspective: Oil on linen 1.6m by 1.35m
  • The Awakening
  • Four quartets No 1: The first painting in a series inspired by Beethoven's Late String Quartets and TS Eliot's Four Quartets. An apt sub-title is Little Gidding. It is a reasonably large painting 1.5m by 1.2m on linen.
  • Quartet no 4
  • Water Lilies
  • Reflections On Water: A stunning painting painted in early 2016. Destined to become regarded as one of the 21st century's masterpieces. Reflections on water is a subject that has fascinated artists and musicians for centuries. The best known musical work of this subject is Debussy's Reflets dans L'eau, from his composition Images.&nbsp;Oil on linen 1.2m by 0.9m.
  • The Virgin On The Rocks: This painting is presently exhibited at the Neue Privat Bank, Zurich. It is 1.7m by 1.4m. The subject of the Virgin On the Rocks is one that is like an armature of Christian inspiration. Here is an abstract version of this great and moving theme....
  • Quartet No 1: A quartet is of course a musical composition, often for string quartet, but also commonly for piano and strings. Beethoven's late string quartets are some of the greatest musical works ever composed. TS Eliot wrote one of the most important poetical works of the twentieth century in his Four Quartets. JS Bach's Goldberg Variations is one of the greatest keyboard works ever composed. This series of four quartets is inspired by these great works in other artistic forms.
  • Quartet No 2: The second work in my series of Four Quartets.
  • Reflections on Water: A remarkably beautiful painting, inspired by the works on the same subject by Monet and Van Gogh, but set in a contemporary context. Destined to be regarded as one of the masterpieces of 21st century art. Debussy's Reflets dans l'eau, which I performed for my Licentiate in Music (along with Chopin's B Minor sonata, and Brahms profound late work in Eb Minor op 118 no 6) is the greatest musical composition on the theme of reflections on water. I think he would have liked this painting....
  • Lake Zurich by Night: Here one sees lights and reflections over the beautiful Lake Zurich at night time.
  • Pavane: The greatest musical Pavane is Ravel's Pavane pour une Infante defunte, and the mood and tone of this work reflects the emotions of Ravel's great work.
  • Nymphaea: I am drawn to water and water lilies, and often paint works inspired by them. This is such a work. Take a look at my video Pavane for an in depth look at this painting.
  • Laughter in the Rain: A smaller version of this fascinating subject.
  • Fireworks: A sky filled with the light of cascading fireworks. Oil on linen 1.5m by 1.2m 2007.
  • The Journey: An amazing purity of colour. This painting evokes a journey to foreign places, and our thoughts and feelings, and our experiences as we undertake that journey. Oil on linen 1.5m by 1.2m, 2009.
  • Subtle Beauty: A work that does not call attention to itself but offers striking beauty for the viewer who looks.
  • Journey: A very detailed painting that recalls the detail of Breughel. Oil on linen 1.5m by 1.2m 2009
  • No Temple For Apollo: A majestic subject in a painting that explores the possibilities of blues, greys and whites.
  • Midnight Sky: The sky glows as if illuminated from behind. Although the sky is dark, it fills us with inspiration. Oil on linen 1.5m by 1.2m 2014.
  • The Kingdom: Oil on linen 1.5m by 1.2m. The symbolism is very dense and there are many things to see in the painting that are not obvious at first glance.&nbsp;The Kingdom evokes the kingdom of life with its myriad of creatures engaged in various activities. At the apex of the painting is a symbol - it might be God or it might be a higher consciousness. In the bottom right corner a pair sit, observing the kingdom. What is clear is that they are separate from the kingdom but also a part of it.
  • Intersecting Paths: The vertical and the horizontal aspects are seen in the cross, and reflect man's duality between his physical and spiritual lives.
  • Infinity: Standing before a vast empty space - or so it seems. The lines crossing this pictorial plane suggest that, although we appear to be alone, in reality we are witnesses to phenomena we do not understand. We are not alone.
  • Metropolis - Aerial Perspective: Many of us live in cities. Sometimes they can seem vast and impersonal places. This painting shows an imaginary city from above.
  • The Awakening: A sumptous painting exploring the richness of red and crimson. Painted in 2010. A powerful work.
  • Remembrance of Things Past: Often we see things only fleetingly. Experience is not eternal but exists in the physical world only in the present moment. After that it is nothing but a memory.
  • Cage: Like a bird housed in a cage. This painting is about freedom.
  • Improvisation: A colourful and spontaneous work from 2010.
  • Bridges In the Sky: We all live in the present, but dream about the future. Some call these dreams and aspirations bridges in the sky. These dreams often move us, and cause us to do things we would not do otherwise. Oil on linen 1.6m by 1.4m 2010.
  • Secret Knowledge: A painting about secrets. It is referred to in my novel and described in further detail there.
  • Bach: A multifaceted painting. Bach was one of the greatest composers who ever lived. A bach is also a stream.
  • No Temple For Apollo
  • Passionbild: Oil on linen 1.6m by 1.35m 2010.
  • Before The Sky: Like a monk looking out over the sea, the viewer stands before the sky. The sky is freedom and flight and becomes like a winged bird transporting us away.
  • Abstract painting no 1: A large and impressive painting. Oil on linen 1.6m by 1.35m 2011.