About
Bernard Weston is an Asian-influenced West Coast Painter, who draws on his personal engagement with Chinese and Japanese art history, theory, and philosophy, in order to create paintings of the sublime. Unlike in the West, however, greater attention has always been paid in Asia to contemplative disposition in the making of a work of fine art. The goal for a painter like Weston is not just to produce amazing art, but to do so in conjunction with studied processes of mental, spiritual, and physical Zen-like practice and preparedness.
The artist strives to convey peace and balance, embracing also a sense of dynamism that is so cherished in the Eastern method of ink-brush painting. Weston’s technique, however, is proprietary and unique. He works with tinted venetian plasters on prepared canvas over board, rather than on Asian Papers, and he polishes his surfaces with wax and mica-silver or mica-gold compounds to add final luster. His paintings exemplify the phrase ‘East meets West’, utilizing innovative, avant-garde materials while being grounded the tradition of meditative art-making.
Bio
I was fascinated with art as a child. I received ‘adult-size’ acrylic paint sets as gifts when I was fairly young -- say, ten or so. I wanted to know how ‘it’ was done. My wanting to know how things worked also made me disassemble many things around the house, both rendering them useless and often evoking the ire of my parents. When I went back to school to earn a degree in Mathematics in my late twenties, I also took art courses. I was thoroughly impassioned with drawing and painting and studied art with the same amount of diligence that I had applied to my math courses.
In 1991, while attending school, I started to seriously pursue working in oil, acrylic, watercolor, charcoal, pen, and my favorites – Sumi-e and Chinese landscapes on rice paper. I also exhibited and sold some of my early chiaroscuro and abstract still lifes at wineries and to friends and family. In 2005, I was helping my parents with a bathroom and kitchen remodel when I saw a demonstration for a Venetian plaster product. I was dazzled by its luster, glow, and the organic beauty of its ground marble and therefore trained in Los Angeles as an installer. Next, I began experimenting with the plaster as an artistic medium. In 2007, after seemingly endless hours of trying different tools and techniques, I began producing high-quality abstract pieces. I had found a niche, a unique tangent. At last, I had found my voice in ‘my medium.’ In July 2009 I made a mid-career choice to become a full-time artist. My first gallery show in Sacramento, CA in July 2009 was a success. July 2025 marks the beginning of my sixthteenth successful year as a full-time professional artist.
I currently have a studio in Clark County, WA.
Statement
Statement
The observation of beauty is an invitation to pause and to just be present. My intention is to allow my viewer the experience of that pause, during which the encroachments of daily life fall away.
Process
I use beauty to invite people to slow down, allowing their perception to become more sensitive. ‘Beauty’ is my invitation to the viewer to depart from ordinary perception -- and to bask in the revelation of ‘the now.’ It is a reintroduction to the everyday sublime, to that which is happening in the moment that we don’t always notice. My art reintroduces us to a world we’ve become accustomed to, to the sensory world in which we are embedded, but take for granted -- such as the sky or trees. The most remarkable kind of transcendent experience is the one we’re having right now: an experience, free of memory or anticipation of the future. That’s my intention as an artist.
My process is fairly simple. I apply Venetian plaster to canvas on board, using plaster and drywall tools, brushes, baking-, cake-decorating, and auto-body tools -- plus, whatever else I might find to get the job done. My pigment recipes are proprietary. I paint on custom French marine mahogany cradled panels by John Annesley Co. After the plaster cures, it is burnished with mica-silver/mica-gold, and then treated with a protective wax layer that bonds the plaster, giving it a final luster. My compositions and colors are inspired by ancient Chinese and Japanese brushwork on paper. My Sumi-e studies in a Buddhist Temple and brushwork apprenticeship with contemporary Chinese Master Yuebin Gong are evident in my work. Sumi-e is a contemplative discipline in Japanese Buddhism, and it is practiced in the Zen and Shingon traditions. Chinese brushwork from the 1200s onward was part of the “Literati” culture: Chinese Sages and their philosophies, Chinese poetry and calligraphy, Chinese Feng Shui and I Ching, Chinese meditation (Qigong and Tai Chi), and Chinese Qin Music are all part of this grand tradition.
More important than the physical process of ‘producing art’ is my frame of mind or state of being. As a Zen Master or Chinese Sage would have done, I start my work day by emptying my mind of chatter or clutter to become present for ‘the process.’ Meditation, Yoga, and Chi Gong all give me access to clearing my mind. Only then do I begin my work. Often, I feel like a little boy, afraid of jumping into a chilly pool when I approach the blank canvas. Terror and exhilaration rise up, simultaneously. Sometimes, the ‘spirit’ of everybody I’ve ever known, loved, hated, or wished things had gone differently with are there with me in my studio. Once I am ‘in’ the piece, however, I experience a sense of disappearing: it’s an “unworldly pleasure” wherein thoughts, the spoken word, and time lose all definition for me. Terror becomes calm, exhilaration becomes focus, and that ‘crowd’ quietly dissipates.