About the Artist
Lyle James Salmi grew up enjoying the bountiful lakes, streams, and wilderness areas of Northeastern Minnesota. The artist enjoys part of the summer at his cabin on Bear Island Lake, a place that his family has owned since 1962. Salmi currently lives in Decatur, Illinois, where he draws inspiration from the open vistas of the Illinois landscape.
It is the lasting impressions of these settings, along with living in the Desert Southwest, that are infused with his understanding of contemporary abstract painting in order to lay the foundations for his abstract impressions of light and form. Salmi has also visited coastal Maine, and he takes inspiration from the beauty of Maine’s natural settings.
It is the lasting impressions of these settings, along with living in the Desert Southwest, that are infused with his understanding of contemporary abstract painting in order to lay the foundations for his abstract impressions of light and form. Salmi has also visited coastal Maine, and he takes inspiration from the beauty of Maine’s natural settings.
Salmi’s paintings invoke a style that can be characterized as “Abstract Impressionism”, as they explore the reality between the physicality of a painterly surface and the suggestion of light and space somewhere beyond…"
Each painting is an exploration of specific qualities of light as both an observed experience and as a phenomenon of memory of place. Along with the specificity of the type of light in each painting, there is also a sense of the universal in that the paintings are not depicting any particular view of scenery…rather they serve as an archetype to the process of painting, with the insistence of brushstrokes and color confirming the idea of the painting as an abstraction.
There exists both a sense of the seen and the unseen in this work... the space that exists between the known and the unknown... which makes each painting its own unique experience.
There exists both a sense of the seen and the unseen in this work... the space that exists between the known and the unknown... which makes each painting its own unique experience.
University of Minnesota - Duluth
Bachelor of Fine Art |
Arizona State University
Master of Fine Arts - Painting/Drawing |
