A faithful disciple of color, line and light from childhood, Harold Braul first started painting under the tutelage of a private teacher at age 6. While his painting would become informed by his study of function-driven industrial design at Fanshawe College in London, he maintains the child-like whimsy that first drew him to the medium. Brauls snapshot scenes are drawn from imagination and filtered through memory. While they depict the realities of everyday life, each figure and setting is conjured from Braul`s own interior vision of urban existence. Like the French Impressionists of the 19th century, Braul finds beauty in the mundane sights of the modern city: a commuter awaiting his connection, or the billow of an overcoat on a rain-swept street. These glimpses of the everyday are rendered in bold color and soft, seductive luminescence. Trained as an urban designer, Braul creates pictorial space that is seemingly three-dimensional. The thick, gestural application of oil paint gives the surface of his works an almost sculptural appearance. Using his hands, palette knives and brushes, the medium is worked in palpable strokes to create rich, material texture. The gestural quality, vibrating line and diffuse light in Brauls paintings highlight themes of motion and flux that characterize his work: a cyclist corners a turn, a bird prepares to take flight, a bistro boils with bold, noisy color and lively figures. I like to allude that something has happened or is about to happen, says Braul of the dynamic energy he depicts. Each moment represented suggests an unfolding narrative. Each moment, though ordinary, expresses the extraordinary play of light and color that may be found in the simplest scenes of city life.I try to achieve a timelessness with my paintings, says the artist, to separate the subject from time and place and so create a work that will always feel immediate.