Demar’s New Dawn Oil on canvas, 21” x 36” private collection by Auseklis Ozols
Latvian-born, New Orleans artist Auseklis Ozols painted “Demar’s New Dawn” in commemoration upon the passing of a dear friend. Writing in A Unique Slant of Light, A Bicentennial History of Art in Louisiana, critic John Kemp describes Ozols as “an exacting draftsman and painter who believes the only path to truly expressive painting—with all its transcendent abstraction—is good drawing.” As founder, director, and senior instructor at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts (NOAFA), Ozols practices what he preaches—his dramatic, sensitive oils express the people, landscapes, flora, and fauna of Louisiana and the Gulf South in all their glorious, delicate, complicated, storm-ravaged beauty.
Currently at NOAFA, the exhibit A Visit to Horn Island features plein air paintings made during multiple trips to the Mississippi barrier island where Walter Anderson created much of his work. A Visit to Horn Island includes work by Claude Ellender, Diego Larguia, Renee Mitchell, Mary Monk, Louis Morales, Phil Sandusky, Billy Solitario, and Ozols, of course. Through February 27 at 5256 Magazine Street. Visit noafa.com or auseklisozols.com.
