Stephen Armstrong, Blue Skies, 2007, Melbourne, Trains
Summary
Melbourne-based artist Stephen Armstrong has an art practice that is grounded in painting but which also encompasses drawing in ink, pencil and charcoal. His subject matter ranges over landscapes, still lifes and figures, but the contours of land and city form the major thread of his work. Armstrong claims his compositions are most influenced by Classical and Romantic traditions, the former bringing structure and order to his canvas, the latter investing it with a restlessness and energy. But traces of Post-impressionism can be also seen operating in some of Armstrong's expressive and tactile works, which figuratively depict and make sense of the outer world but also gesture at the inner world of the artist.
With its symmetrical arches, strong vertical lines and planes of colour, and its restrained palette, 'Blue Skies' brings some of Classicism's order to what is more often than not a crowded and random experience of riding Melbourne's public transport. Blue-sky thinking for commuting, perhaps. There is an almost religious quality to this painting, with the quiet, contemplative visages of the commuters suggesting a communion with something beyond the realities of urban travel.
Painted in 2007, this ever-relevant depiction of something that many of us spend much of our weekday lives doing came into the collection in 2017. The collection also holds Stephen Armstrong's 'Shot Tower'.
