“Every image begins in my mind” says Max Hayslette, “the combination of a long dance between memory and imagination. Memory colored by imagination is the root from which my images grow. As is my practice in all of my paintings, I choose a subject – sometimes more than one – study it or them well, and then mentally disassemble the parts, mixing and reassembling them into a new image with a new spirit, which is my own.”
Hayslette considers himself a romantic artist, one who seeks to give his works a warm and gentle spiritual quality. For him, the essence and spirituality of his subject are more important than detail, and he finds that he can grasp this spiritual essence more completely when his subject is illumined by the dawn twilight halfway between light and dark. Says Hayslette: “Painting is a silent medium and well suited to exploring the ethereal qualities of early morning light, before the sounds of the day invade the scene. Painting is a process which is accomplished in silence, but when everything works right, it culminates in a triumphant symphony for the soul.” The viewer of Max Hayslette’s work will witness a symphony of color and light, and their soul will be naturally and effortlessly won over by a quiet triumph of beauty.
