A native Californian of Sicilian descent, John Asaro grew up some twenty miles from the picturesque beaches of Point Loma and the visually stimulating, multi-cultural city of San Diego. The artist began to experiment with a combination of palette knife and brush techniques to attain on canvas the fleeting essence found in nature. Going outdoors to sketch briskly the essentials of a transitory scene, Asoro finishes most of his paintings in the studio as he listens to recorded Gregorian chants, the classical music of Puccini and Verdi, or the energetic voices of Luciano Pavarotti and Leontyne Price.
Asaro's purpose is to produce excellent paintings and to remain innocent as he grows artistically and searches for substructures in art. He strives to make his style, content and subjects as personal and candid as possible so that a capacious audience will understand the relevance of it. "When art is understood by many, " Asaro asserts, "it helps to connect us and we are all the better for it. Art is self-realization."
The distinguished paintings of John Asaro capture immediate fleeting impressions rather than permanent aspects of a subject. His sumptuous, flowing brushwork allows the viewer to explore the nuances of reality and truth. Within layers of beautifully orchestrated pigments, Asaro's virile strokes of paint dash, swish, swirl and leash out to represent light, atmosphere, the motion of direct and reflected colors in the open air and the complexity of the human condition.
