John Rufo

About the artist

John's interest in making two-dimensional fine art stems from his love of drawing, having grown up in a household full of designers and artists where daily drawing, constructing and tinkering were encouraged. A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design he continues to explore the relationship of the physical world to the two-dimensional canvas.

"I almost always create a red underpainting first. Most of my color palettes are cool and working against a warm background immediately creates a contrast and vibration between the paint and the surface. As the piece develops I work back and forth between painting and drawing on the surface. Sometimes there is a lot of drawn linework in the finished piece and sometimes there is none. I also mix in a lot of palette knife work in certain pieces. I enjoy the contrast of palette knife marks and brush strokes."