The first and the last lights of the day have always a particular fascination on everyone of us, to which we can’t ever be indifferent. And artists are par excellence the most sensible to this kind of attractions: many times a typical kind of light can totally change an object or a scene and the perception of it, like in many cases of Photorealists‘ paintings. Today, Alex Devereux‘s art is characterized by almost all evening scenes with warm lights that give a singular atmosphere to the painting. In his artworks we can also find a slice of American common life with its diners and shops, cities and cars of another but recent era. We can’t help but to notice that the colour of the lightening signs is often the main element of the scene that contrasts with the black of the sky around.
He paints very original soft lighting sceneries, meditative atmospheres from the almost hypnotic tones. He is able to capture those instantaneous moments in which sun is freshly set or it’s just rising, at the crack of dawn, where places seem isolated and full of life at the same time.
Even if devoid of people, his works aren’t crystallized scenes, on the contrary, they have always elements that make you feel on hold, as though something is going to happen all of a sudden. You can stumble on an illuminated sign that suggests you that the shop is open, giving you the instinct to watch over the glass windows trying to sight some movement inside, or a red stoplight that leaves you waiting for green. In some scenes it seems to smell the rain that has just stopped fallen, or the cotton candy of a chiosque or some good appetizing smells from the diner nearby. In this way, Alex Devereux is able to capture a moment of our times, freezing it in the memory and giving it to the ones who follow.
“I think it’s the history and time of the imagery I am trying to capture a moment in time, that’s simple and intriguing. One of the things that drew me to night scenes is to paint images that no one else was necessarily doing.”
– Alex Devereux
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