PAINTER OF POETIC DESCRIPTIONS OF NATURE

European landscape artist Laslo Feher (1955 -) started working as a professional artist in his late teens, and now in his fifties he is still dedicated to his chosen profession. In 1994, he left Hungary and moved to Canada and since then he and his family have resided in Vancouver, BC. Once established here, Feher has continued painting and exhibiting in local art galleries. During the summer months the artist can be seen in local parks painting, exhibiting and selling his art on location.

Feher estimates that his body of work exceeds 2,500 pieces. His art is in private and public collections in Hungary, Germany, Austria, Croatia and Canada.

Laslo Feher is a self-taught artist who learned about painting from books and other artists, but also from keenly observing light, colour and changes that take place in nature. The artist's narratives very often include river banks, parks, forests, nature trails and only rarely do they include man and his activities in nature. On occasion the artist paints other subjects, such as still lives, street scenery and domestic interiors. Feher grew up on the shores of the river Danube and as an avid hiker and fisherman he spent a lot of time outdoors; thus nature seems an obvious and self-imposed subject for the painter.

Although his work is deeply connected with his love and appreciation of nature, Feher's landscapes are not faithful depictions of the physical world that inspires him. They are primarily based on the artist's inner feelings, his memories and are tinted by his moods. The overall effect of Feher's art is a poetic description of nature, achieved through the sensitive tonal variations and well-selected elements of a scene. As a rule,

Feher's paintings have stable composition and a single focal point, but there are exceptions. The latter is especially true of his watercolours executed in the wet on wet technique, which do not always have a well-defined point at which the eye can enter the composition and quickly seek the focal point. After a while the eye can isolate a tree, bush, boat or misty middle distance and focus there.

These small format paintings are done quickly and spontaneously, with subtle tonal variations chosen to depict foreground, middle ground and in some cases marvelously fluid, moving skies. his palette is almost monochromatic and it consists of shades of brown, blue, grey, green and sometimes of pale pink. The immediate and convincing impact of Feher's work is one of calmness and serenity.

Feher also works in other media, using acrylic, pen, ink and washes, and only sometimes oil. Pieces executed in these techniques contain slightly bolder pigments, but they still hold the same sensitive qualities as his watercolors.

Inga Kordic