New Pieces May 15

Bruce Starr

Last was a working getaway weekend, with a visit to Provincetown, a little break before a big push for my show on June 5. (see menu bar above) Very nice to be on Cape Cod, lots of galleries to visit, amazing light, inspiration for new paintings, and catching up with my friend Mark Taylor.

Mark is opening a new eatery in the Aquarium Mall Food Court called "Batata" (it means "sweet potato" in Portuguese), featuring a great menu of gourmet fries and sauces done Provincetown style, and a variety of other entrees/items. Mark's spot-on taste and food-savvy experience in the restaurant scene should make this place a hit, so check it out if you're in P'town this summer. I will post a link when available!

With spring finally taking hold in New England, it was also a perfect opportunity to get new material for paintings. Below are some things I've been working on:

The palette of my work has been intensifying over the last several months, so rich spring colors provide a welcome opportunity for experimentation. Full strength casein pigments are extremely potent, as you can see in the Ultamarine Blue base I used for the water in the painting below.

"Waiting for Spring on the Charles River" 24" x 12" Casein paint on muslin covered plywood

The scene is along the Esplanade near the boathouse, a jewel in the "Emerald Necklace" of Boston's park systems on the Charles River. In summer the river will be studded with sails, but in the stil-bitter chill of an April Sunday morning, the little boat stopped at this dock was a lone voyager. The pale dormant grass and leafless trees seemed to make the reflective blue water all the more vivid, so I chose to render it with the intensity you see. Too much? Please comment!

Now something even more intense, I just finished since my cape trip. 

"Herring Cove, Dark of Sunset" 16" x 12" Casein paint on muslin covered plywood

Whenever visiting P'town, I love watching the sun set over the bay from Herring Cove. It rained this day in Boston, but was beautiful on the cape; by nightfall the low storm clouds still hovered over the mainland to create a deep, brooding backdrop for the disappearing day. The water glistens brightly even as the beach turns inky purple. The asphalt, the broken bit of dune fencing and signage silhouetted in the foreground lends the bit of human intervention I relish. These types of colors are a big challenge to photograph, the camera eye misses much of the subtlety of the deepest tones. Too ominous? Comments? 

And for something different from my usual landscapes:

"Hardscrabble Tractor" 24" x 16", casein paint on muslin covered plywood

Several people have said my Indiana roots are showing with this painting. True, but I'm fascinated with this image for a number of reasons. An abandoned town in rural Delaware, a dusty crossroads amid brown corn and soybean fields, at a defunct gas station and de facto junkyard, I found this grizzled relic still standing like a sentry for a bygone era. I've placed it in a gentler green landscape.

The iconic red tractor connects to our American mythology of individualism and the family farm, but the bleak metal guts of this soldier are mechanically unsentimental. I believe the hood and grill plating were originally painted silver, now bleached and rusting down to red primer. The engine and body are better preserved, still coated with a sheen of ancient axle grease and manure, enough to support a thin layer of bright moss in a few spots. There is a skeletal, muscular quality about him, like a raw side of meat. Something from the insect world too, a grasshopper or mantis, and I can even see the monster from "Aliens" leering a little. Comments welcome!

On a more domestic note:

Early Spring Morning from My Back Door" 12" x 16", Casein paint on muslin covered plywood

Though I love painting twilight scenes, bright morning light charms too. Coffee in hand (of course) I opened the back door in March to find rich sunlight streaming between the houses along the rear street, creating lovely bright stripes in the asphalt. Two houses, and the back fence with a winter-bare vine framed the view nicely, and a few power lines fed my utility fetish. 

One more, an earlier work:

"Turnpike Bridge with Orange Cones" 14 x 18"  casein paint on gessoed canvas board

Here you can see the gentler muted palette I favored earlier, with a taupe and pastel peach colored sky. I believe my cloud rendering technique has evolved considerably since I painted this, but there is a simple structural appeal here. I took the picture that inspired this piece while crossing the Delaware from Pennsylvania onto the Jersey Turnpike, on the day I officially moved to Boston. A bridge like many others, but there is something about ascending the arching roadway that directs your gaze to the sky, evoking a moment of hope and promise, even amidst loneliness and lingering apprehensions of the unknown other side.

Comments always welcome! 

Bruce