Featured Artist Brian Sylvester

Featured Brian Sylvester combines geometry, spirituality and floral imagery. Enjoy his portfolio and learn more about this artist by visiting his website.

I am a traditional brush-to-canvas painter, and in the past three years that I’ve been a full-time artist, I’ve gone from painting in relative isolation to being able to exhibit my work in several private and public venues, from outdoor markets and open studios events to museums and local businesses including a recent display in a holistic wellness center. It’s been tremendously gratifying to engage with fellow artists and the public, and as a result of outreach online and in my community see my paintings find happy homes all over the country and abroad, proving that art is for everyone.

My 15 years working in floriculture are one of the many influences of my current work. I’ve always been attracted to Eastern philosophies and aesthetics, particularly the imagery of devotional mandalas,  but the decorative elements in the structures we create around us, such as portals, gates and façades in tile, brick and iron also captivate me.

My work attempts to combine the geometry of both the natural and spiritual world.  I’ve lived in many cities in the States and abroad, but now that I am living in Vermont I expect an abundance of inspiration from both the landscape and the architecture.

With dimensions ranging from 5 x 5 to 24 x 24 inches on canvas, and 16 x 20 to 24 x 48 inches on wood panel, my mandala paintings have a calming harmonious effect whether used for home décor or as a focal point for personal meditation. I’m finding that there is indeed a universal place where art and science, the sacred and the mundane can meet, in certain shapes and tones that seem to appeal to us unconsciously on a variety of levels, and that what may seem simple compositions at first draw the viewer in and take on more depth and complexity the more they look at them, literally coming to life before their eyes.

Last year I moved from canvas to wood panels and away from smaller works to larger compositions and planned series best considered and enjoyed as a group playing off each other visually and thematically. My aim is to keep moving in this direction, hopefully attracting commission work for projects on a larger scale. I’ve discovered that when working with mandalas, the possibilities are endless, with no two patterns or palettes alike, and each unique in how they affect the viewer.

This phenomenon keeps me in a state of discovery, and I am always surprised by how all the separate elements come together in a finished piece with a personality all its own.