Bruce Starr's Paintings

Bruce Starr at Artists Crossing Gallery, Downtown Crossing, Boston

2012-02-07T07:05:00.000-08:00

My paintings will be featured through the month of February at this cool space in downtown Boston, just off the Common. Note that the gallery is now in its new location:

Artists Crossing Gallery

505 Washington Street

Boston MA

Just around the corner from the Downtown Crossing T Station, between the Paramount Theater and Macy's on Washington Street!

Sorry I have no new paintings to show. The last month has been crazy as I've been relocating to Philadelphia! However I will be set up in my new space soon, and hope to have some new work to share by the end of February!

Meanwhile, I will be donating this piece to the Winter Warmup Silent Auction and Dance Party to benefit the Friends of High School Park.

For more info, you can visit the website: http://www.highschoolpark.org/index.shtml

Bruce Starr Paintings at "Out of the Blue Gallery," Cambridge

2011-12-17T12:48:00.000-08:00

My work is currently on display at two locations in Cambridge MA. The "Out of the Blue Gallery" is a great community venue on Prospect Street just off Central Square. My pieces can also be seen in the Middle East Restaurant on Mass. Ave. Check back soon, as I will be posting more pictures and info from these venues!

Please visit the past posts for info on other venues and recent paintings

Bruce Starr at Deluca Gallery, Provincetown MA

2011-10-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

The Deluca Gallery is located at 359 Commercial St.

next to The Harbor Lounge, on the waterfront.

The piece above is a scene from seafood stand in Wellfleet Harbor on a brisk September evening as the sky began to clear after a rainy afternoon. At 36 x 24, it is one of my larger paintings to date.

Many thanks to the friends and family who came from Boston, Philadelphia, and Arizona to help me celebrate opening weekend of my show at the Deluca Gallery! Here we are at Lorraine's:

Here are a few other new pieces to be seen for the first time at the show: (click to enlarge)

Local 188 24 x 16, Casein on Muslin covered plywood

This is a street scene outside a restaurant in Portland Maine, at the end of an evening on a warm September night. A rich palette of colors emerge from the pools of light and reflections against a backdrop of ultamarine blue in the surrounding darkness.

Race Point Light from Herring Cove, 16 x 12, Casein on muslin covered ply

This piece is very similar to a previous painting that sold the first time I displayed it at the Providence Open Market. Herring Cove is a perfect place to enjoy the rich colors of sunset over Race Point, with the light reflected in the texture of the waves as they roll into Hatches Harbor.

Miranda's Window, Rainy Dawn. 16 x 12, Casein on muslin-covered ply

This scene is from a small seside town in Maine where my friend Miranda recently bought a cottage. Peeping out the window on a cold rainy morning this scene greeted me. There is something about the stolid, boxy house, secure against the wet and chill dawn, that gave me a sense of peace and comfort I wanted to convey in this painting.

Upcoming Show at Patty Deluca Gallery, Provincetown

2011-09-26T17:07:00.000-07:00

Opening November 11! I'm very excited to have a show at this wonderful gallery at 359 Commercial Street, adjacent to the Harbor Lounge. I will be posting more information about the opening as it evolves, so stay tuned!

Patty Deluca Gallery

Crashing the Party
Sorry for being out of sight recently--I suffered a hard drive disaster with my Macbook crashing completely. I lost a lot of data, both images of paintings and images to create paintings. Coming back online now with more disc space, improved software and a reliable backup system.

NEW PAINTINGS

The Boating Party 24 x 12, casein on muslin covered plywood

This is the most recent of my Boston Esplanade paintings. On a gorgeous summer evening, when all of Boston seemed to be enjoying the balmy waterfront, the sunlight lingered late with a palpable golden glow. The idyllic scene inspired a classically referenced treatment of sky, clouds, and trees that merges into the 21st century architecture along the Charles River. I intended some gentle irony in depicting the partiers with a certain posed revelry, reminiscent of a liesure-class tableau in a painting from the romantic era. But there is definitively a democratized modern American twist. Interposed between the figures and the verdant natural background are the ubiquitous machinery and toys of our western consumer society.

Merrimack Through Pines 36 x 24, Casein on Muslin Covered Ply

This is a view from Maudslay State Park, outside Newburyport MA. Overlooking the Merrimack River, the land was a large estate originally built in the 1840s, replete with a huge mansion, guest houses, extensive landscaping, formal gardens and elaborate greenhouses. The mansion was demolished in 1955, and now only some outbuildings, skeletal garden walls and pathways still exist. The rhododendrons and a few other surviving horticultural specimens have melded into the native plantscape. The sweep of land cleared for the riverview is still discernable, though pine trees have sprung up where the bank descends steeply. They now filter the afternoon sun into a deeply shaded glade along the old carriageway.

I loved creating a deep toned painting with intense, rich colors that still conveys a bright sunny day beyond, and ruby patches of sunlight filtering through blue-green pine boughs. I hope it conveys a certain moody sense of granduer that haunts the place.

Frame Art
My frames are made of architectural moldings, so they always convey a sense of mass, but the latest design goes a step further. It references a classic perspective-angle frame in burnished gold, but reduces it to a wide angular tray fold with unmistakable presence. I will experiment with different metallic colors and edge patterns that compliment specific paintings as the technique evolves.

Homeresque (no, not Simpson)

Homer's studio on the cliffs

Weekend trips have lately yeilded some great material for future art. My friend Miranda Barrett spent the summer fixing up a newly aquired cottage in Old Orchard Beach Maine. It was wonderful to visit, see her project, and hang on the beach, but I also had a chance to visit an amazing nearby venue. Prout's Neck is a stubby peninsula just across the cove, and the site of Winslow Homer's studio. Homer created amazing iconic landscapes and figure studies in the late 19th century. He retired to a converted carriage house on the cliffs of Prouts Neck in the 1880s, and did some of his best and most mature work painting the surrounding rocky seascape. It is easy to see what attracted him to this place. There is a cliff trail that winds along the Atlantic, where the views of the rocky shore, barrier islands, and turbulent New England sky is stunning. I'm very excited about creating my own paintings from the images I collected.

Portland Maine is just a short drive north. If you didn't know, this great little city has a thriving art and restaurant scene. We had dinner at a fantastic place called "Local 188". Thanks much Miranda for a wonderful and productive weekend getaway!

Local 188, part of Portlands great restaurant scene

Bruce and Miranda, end of a wonderful meal

Art and Sexy Food

2011-08-08T20:45:00.000-07:00

This summer I've been selling my paintings at a couple juried artisan markets sponsored by New England Open Markets. The artisan markets compliment the same group's farmers markets as sources for great locally made products. Farm market vendors may sell only foods they grow or harvest themselves, and this time of year the stalls are bursting with fantastic local produce. Boston's SoWa Open Market in the downtown gallery district is on of the most popular. Here's a picture of me with my paintings in SoWa's artisan section a few weeks ago.

The two other pictures at the right are from the Providence Open Market
in Lippit Park, with some painting shoppers on a sunny day, and the produce tents of the farmers market.

My Sexy Food Story

Hey! Those are my
pirate boots she's wearing!

Lori Theriault is an amazing potter, fellow artist, one of my oldest friends, whom I've known since our salad days of working on theater productions together. You can see her beautiful ceramic creations on her blog through the following link:

http://crazygreenstudios.blogspot.com/

This picture was taken lotsa years ago on Michigan Avenue when we lived in Chicago. We also share a love for cooking and fresh local food, but alas distance has kept us from making a meal together for a long time. This posting is a delicious and plausible substitute, however, for sharing food in person.

Lori recently started a new blog called "Sexy Food"

http://yumsexyfood.blogspot.com/

I'm excited to tell a good story to contribute to it, and I'm posting it here concurrently.

This week, To my great surprise I found a vendor with fresh sour cherries from Maine. I’ve loved sour cherries since my mom picked them for pies from the tree in our back yard while I was growing up. The season is very short, and the fruit very fragile, so they are seldom if ever seen in grocery store produce sections! However the luscious little red orbs are well worth the effort to obtain. Lori Theriault and I used to pick them together at Maryland and Virginia orchards when we both lived in Washington DC, but there the season is over and done by mid July.

Ok, so pitting cherries is the pits,
but always the first step

Not so many Americans know how uniquely delicious fresh sour cherries can be. Certain other cultures are more clued in to the secret. Over the years, I got used to hearing Russian, Polish, and Persian spoken when I picked sour cherries--they are beloved in both Eastern Europe and Iran. Lori and I were picking at a sleepy green orchard in Purcelville Virginia several years ago when we struck up a conversation and traded recipes with two fellow cherry lovers, an Iranian mother and daughter. The mother clued us into a recipe I’ve now made and shared many times. Sour cherries are cooked down with some brown sugar to a fresh soft jam, then baked with rice and nuts. This is a wonderful dish on its own, but also fantastic as an accompaniment to chicken or other meats. In the Middle East, our new Iranian friend told us, a wonderful traditional pairing would be cherries with rice, and goat.

Goat, lean and spicy

My first plan was to pick up a small amount of chicken, and cook the cherries, rice, and meat together as a one-pot meal. But another find surprised me again. Beautiful goat shanks, purple-red and meaty, too tempting to pass up. So I set out on a cooking adventure inspired by a fast friendship in an orchard years ago.

To prepare the goat, I cut the meat from the bone and minced it. Then I heated olive oil with brown sugar and used that for a fast initial sear of the goat.

Juicy cherries provide enough liquid
to simmer the goat till tender

After browning the meat I removed it, then sauteed a couple yellow onions with some garlic in the meat-flavored oil/sugar mixture. Then the cherries and meat all went back into the pot with a generous splash of balsamic vinegar, and some seasonings of coriander nutmeg. and salt. The uber-juicy cherries provided much of the cooking liquid required. Goat is a spicy and firm fibered meat that requires longer cooking to become tender. I simmered this down for over an hour, till the mixture had thickened nicely and the meat was chewy tender. Tangy tart cherries proved an excellent compliment to richly flavored goat. To make the dish go farther, I then added a couple diced sweet potatoes, three small chopped jalepenos for some heat, and some lightly ground walnuts.

Adding veggies and wine

A cup of red wine (I chose a Malbec, but a Pinot Noir would have worked as well) and a little water provided enough additional liquid to cook the sweet potatoes. Now the goat wast definitely tipsy, and happy! It took another 15 or so minutes of simmering for the veggies to get tender and the stew to thicken again.

The rice, I cooked separately, a nice blend of brown and wild. All the leftovers got mixed together in a wonderful melange that will provide a few more delicious meals. But for this dinner, a nice presentation was in order. Our entree featured a bed of brown and wild rice, topped with slow cooked sour cherries, goat, sweet potatoes and walnuts--and of course some fresh veggie garnish with a cherry on top! A glass of the Malbec to wash it down and a backdrop of a recently completed painting. Perfect!

Slow cooked goat with sour cherries sweet poatoes and walnuts
on a bed of brown and wild rice

New Paintings
A couple new pieces to showcase. The first is a scene from my neighborhood capturing a bit of the flavor of life here in Somerville. It scene was from a warm June evening when the sun lingered extra late into the evening, the last strong rays shining intently on the upper floors of the row houses. Still a little time left for an older gentleman to tinker with his meticulously maintained, American luxury car. As the shadows begin to pool around him he as determined to keep it purring as long as the light lasts.

Maintaining the Buick
16 x 12 Casein on muslin covered plywood

Stoney Shore, Morning Haze

16 x 12 Casein on muslin covered ply

The second is a simple but evocative composition depicting a rocky shoreline in summer morning fog. This scene was shot on a hike on the Horseneck Beach State Preserve near Fall River.

Both of these pieces loose a significant amount of subtlety to the camera lense. The tones appear much more nuanced when viewed in person. Come see them in Providence this weekend!

Recent Paintings

2011-07-11T21:16:00.000-07:00

Rising Tides
Boston is gorgeous this time of year, and it can be hard to find time for painting! But I'm collecting LOTS of scenes to paint, whether now or later. I've been focusing on coastal and nautical images, recording my first summer experience living in Boston. Here's some pieces I've been working on: (click to enlarge) I will get these posted in the inventory/price list soon!

RACE POINT LIGHT FROM HERRING COVE,
16" X 12", CASEIN ON MUSLIN COVERED PLY, 2011

This kind of lighthouse scene can be formulaic unless there is something unusual in the interpretation of color, form and/or structure. I'm pleased with the reflection of light and movement in the water here--this series is a great chance for me to work on various ways to render the sea, a good artists' challenge. I think the tall bank of clouds lying tall against the horizon also provides a good sense of place. Years of visit to the tip of Cape Cod have taught me how weather systems linger on the edge of the mainland. I've favored a salmon and turquoise palette in this series too, but this is probably the most intense example.

DOCKHOUSE AND HOIST, CHARLES RIVER
24' X 16", CASEIN PAINT ON MUSLIN COVERED PLYWOOD, 2011

This is one of the most multi-layered pieces I've done to date, which is partly why I rendered it in a more graphically representational style, though still focusing strongly on elements of reflected light. An achingly beautiful late afternoon in early summer from the Esplanade, just east of the Community Boathouse. The hoist anchors this scene as the centerpiece of a story about boating, from the magical play of light in the sails, to the motorized patrol skiff. I really like how the lights atop the hoist look like devilish little cormorant wings, ready to magically transport the hoist to a shoreline somewhere near Hogwarts.

LONGFELLOW BRIDGE AND SAILBOAT REEF, CHARLES RIVER
12" X 9" CASEIN ON MUSLIN COVERED PLY, 2011

Also from the Esplanade, but the west side, showing the boathouse reef against the distinctive pepper-grinder towers of the Longfellow Bridge. This is a smaller piece, and the richest and most painterly palette so far in this series. Pleased here with the deep pools of colors and shimmering serene surface of the river.

PTOWN BREAKWATER, SCRUB, AND COASTGUARD LIGHT
24" X 12", CASEIN ON MUSLIN COVERED PLY, 2011

This is dangerously close to a kind of pretty postcard scene that gives me a bit of the heebie geebies. But there is something about the scrub bush dead center, (hints of burgeoning spring leaf notwithstanding,) that pulls it away from a mere bucolic landscape--I hope! This is another Provincetown locale, heading towards the rotary at the end of Commercial street, on the way to the starting point of the breakwater. It's a ritual of my visits to the cape to hike across the rocks and out to the lighthouse. For an all-day hike, you can head all the way across Herring Cove and Hatches Harbor (don't try it at high tide!) to Race Point light (depicted in the top painting) before circling back to town along route 6A.

ON THE QUAY, DEEP TWILIGHT
16" X 12" CASEIN ON MUSLIN COVERED PLYWOOD

Another Massachusetts waterfront painting I've previously posted, but wanted to include here. While wandering home from a hike on Plum Island, I got a bit lost and found myself at this dead end. A beautiful scene at the end of sunset but with an incongruous light pole sprouting signs with regulations, warnings, and statements of liability limitation. Again playing with the conventional notion of painterly focal points, but adding a bit of commentary on bureaucracy and our litigious society. Hopefully kind of cool and pretty too.

Ancient Murals

More years ago than I care to recall, I did a mural for the home of some clients in the Virginia suburbs of Washington DC. Their house had outer rooms circling a central core structure. Our staging conceit was that this core was a Roman Ruin inside a modern outer framework. Below is a picture of younger yours truly posing on the living-room side of a completed section. Depicting the dimension of rough-hewn stonework on a flat surface was a scenic artists' delight! The second pcture shows me working from a beam on one of the tall corners sections. Residential murals are a natural bridge between theatrical backdrops and residential artistic painting. I'm interested in doing more!

Arts in the Park 2011

2011-06-12T08:59:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Boston after showing my work at the 16th annual "Arts in the Park" festival on June 5th.

(Remember you can click on the pic for a larger view. For my full painting inventory and prices, click "feed the starving artist" tab on the top menu bar)

Entrance to Festival

Despite earlier predictions of hot sunny weather, we were a little worried that the festival might be postponed due to rain. However the overcast skies kept the weather cool and comfortable, and by later in the afternoon the sun began to peek out.

High School Park, in Elkins Park PA (just outside the Philly city limits) was created on the site of the town's original high school campus. The big old building was imploded decades ago, leaving a hilltop meadow surrounded by beautiful mature trees. Eventually the site became a municipal park, and began hosting an annual arts and crafts festival in 1995.

Step Right Up

This was the first time I transported my new booth assembly. Everything went smoothly, and I just finished my set-up by the official opening time of the event. Next time it will go much faster! I look a bit like a carnival barker here, but that's actually a screwdriver in my hand, not a pointer.

Always wish I had taken more photos, but the day went by quickly as the festival got crowded. It was great to see old friends and neighbors from Philadelphia and meet new people interested in paintings! It was a successful sales day too, so overall a wonderful trip.

What really pleased me most was selling two pieces from my urban settings series. This is the subject matter I find most rewarding, so I was glad that people seeing my work for the first time found it interesting too. Rather than painting pretty scenes, I prefer finding structure, beauty and drama in gritty everyday settings. Great to hear comments from people who got the concept and liked it!

"Sunset Strip Mall USA", urban settings series

"Race St. Taxi at the Ben Franklin"
Urban Settings Series

Now that I'm established in Boston, I will be exploring some local artist markets and other festival and shows in the New England area. Stay tuned for news!

More Frame Features
It was fun to indulge my old carpentry skills in making frames for several pieces before the festival. I know some collectors who like to hang paintings without frames, saying that a painting should speak for itself and stand on it's own. To me, this works if there are many painting together on a large wall, or if the wall space around the piece is very tight. However, I like the way a frame creates a portal into the world of the painting, besides just setting it off and giving more weight and presence to the work. I've created a couple unique "floater" designs that allow the painted edges of the canvas to show within the frame rim. Below are some pieces in frames, next to views of the canvas only

"Three Lanes to Jersey"
Reverse angle Faux Red Mahogany Floater, about 22 x 18

"Manayunk Hill, Night"
Salmon Stained Maple Box Floater, about 20 x 14

"Path through Trees and Bramble"
Another reverse angle faux mahogany, about 24 x 18

Nostalgic for Winter?

Lastly, my friend Jeff bought one of my favorite paintings from last winter in the depths of the season's snow and ice. The scene is a few streets from my house in Somerville, looking towards Cambridge, where Jeff lives. Below is the canvas, then a photo of the painting in its new home.

"Melting Snow, Sunset, Cambridge"

Next Stop Philly

2011-06-01T16:37:00.000-07:00

Bruce Starr

Weather reports look fantastic for the Arts in the Park Festival this weekend. Looking forward to seeing old friends in Philadephia and taking part in this 16th annual event that has become a mainstay in the Elkins Park community. Here's a link if you want more information: Arts in the Park

Also you can Link to my inventory with price list. (last chance to purchase online before things go to the festival!)

This week is all about final preparations as I take my show on the road! I put my brush down last week after completing a couple more paintings:

Spring comes late to New England, but it comes with a passion. Here is a painting of a rambling old beach house in Provincetown with large twin crabapple trees in the front yard that just exploded into blossom.

Green House, Bursting Apple Blossoms, Ptown
24" x 12" (click to enlarge)

On this bright sunny day, the sun created deep contrasts of light and shadow, most vivid on the bleached green shingles and fragile blossoms. In the deepest corner of blue-purple shade, two green adirondack chairs peep out at the world.

Tidal Marsh, Plum Island
12" x 9"

The next piece is small in size but big in scope. The scene is on Plum Island, a coastal community north of Boston, photographed in fall when the reeds turn a rich golden ochre. The tidal marshes creates a maze of snaking channels at the mouth of Parker River as it empties into Plum Island Sound.

This beautiful area is all protected seashore now, and a haven for swallows and seabirds. Looking towards the mainland was an weathered fence and fisherman's hoist at an old channel put-in. The marsh grass waves and ripples towards the wide horizon as a parade of clouds passes above.

Tower and Power
16" x 16"

Ok, back to some pieces with a little more of the urban flavor I like. This is a quirky painting that I wasn't sure I would take to the festival. Its a view looking upwards from the Schuylkill Canal Path in Philadelphia's Manayunk neighborhood. The buildings date from a period when the riverfront and canal were lined with small factories, and smaller homes for the workers rose on the adjacent hills. The network of power lines and utilitarian structures creates a geometric grid and and unusual skyward perspective. The scene is certainly industrial, but the scale and age of the infrastructure create an oddly human sensibility, and a sense that unstoppable time has moved beyond this place, though it still struggles along through the wake of years.

Clipped Willow, Medford MA
18" x 12"

Here is a somewhat similar theme in a more residential setting. What originally caught my eye was the queer but oddly compelling color combination of the house and willow branches, under a moody grey-yellow overcast sky. The street was once one of some pretension, now mostly down at heel. But the willow still stands with outsized dignity, though clipped to allow the passage of traffic, and growing a little more more decrepit with the passing decades.

FRAME UP!
I will have some artist-made frames available at Arts in the Park. The right frame creates a portal into the world of the painting, adding depth, richness, and a sense of transition. My compositions usually fill the picture plane completely, and have wrapped and painted edges, so "floater" frames are usually the best choice. I will offer two main types:

This is a simple box floater in hardwood Maple with a light flesh stain. The inside return rail is Van Dyke brown. The clean lines keep the emphasis on the painting while bringing it forward from the wall and adding focus.

This frame has the same theatrical roots and the casein paint media I work with. It is a reverse angle floater in a robust red-mahogany finish, created using a scenic faux-finish overglazing technique. The boldness of the color compliments darker, richer hues used in many of my recent pieces. The reverse angle gives it an unusual, but still traditional look that I like very much.

If neither of these match your style, you can get amazing custom frame profiles and expert advice from Cindy Blackwood at:

The Frame House

(click above to link)

Frame House Logo

This great store is just a block away from the Arts in the Park Festival venue.

Back to work! Still lots to do before the festival! Hope to see everyone there!

New Pieces May 15

2011-05-15T08:33:00.000-07:00

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

New Stuff April 24

2011-04-24T20:02:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my Studio!

This blog is designed to share my paintings with interested followers, friends, and family. Just starting up, my main goal is to post some pictures of my work and get feedback. Please comment and join my friends list!

June is coming fast, so I am working hard to complete a good selection of paintings for the Arts in the Park festival June 5th. Hope to see you in High School Park. (see "Juried Show" link in the menu bar).

More Recent Work:

(click pic to enlarge)

Fountain of My Youth

9" x 12" Casein paint on muslin over plywood

I am really pleased with this painting of an old water fountain at the edge of a grove of trees in Grant Park, my old neighborhood in Atlanta. Love that heavy duty foot pedal; you can practically feel the torque, hear the creak of gears and gurgle of water. Rusty and grungy as it is, I still want to take a long drink.

Watch for more fountains. I will be creating a series of fountain paintings over the next few months.

Winter Hill Marina Under the Mystic Power Plant, Dusk

24" x 16" Casein Paint on muslin over plywood

Boston embraces the Charles River for recreational amenities, sailing, tourism, and scenic skyline views. Just around the elbow of Charlestown, the Mystic River also flows into Boston Bay, a bluer collar counterpart to the Charles, despite its more romantic name. A bit upriver, looking from route 28, the massive Mystic Power Plant dominates the skyline, sprawling above a lonely little boat dock with the chilly name of Winter Hill Marina. It’s a visually arresting scene when the last horizontal rays of sun catch the plant in the evening as the sky deepens into night. Nature creating portentous beauty out of a utilitarian setting is a contrast I find fascinating.

Summer Evening, Schuykill Canal Path at Green Lane

16” x 16” Casein on muslin over plywood

The tall bridge in the background was a rail line crossing the Schuykill (pronounced Skoo-kill) River, that connected the manufacturing district of Manayunk to Central Philadelphia. I believe it dates from very early in the 20th century, one of several similar spans across the broad river valleys in Philadelphia, engineering marvels of their day. The strength and grace of the masonry arches references Roman aqueducts, and gives this scene a rather Italian feeling, further enhanced by the tall pine and other lush trees. But the whole setting is also firmly grounded in the grit of American industry, with the old canal, auto and rail bridges, and my favorite, the power line towers.

6A, Ptown

24” x 12” casein paint on starched muslin covered plywood

This was one of my first paintings on muslin. When painting a large theatrical backdrop as a scenic artist, we stapled the muslin to the floor, then sprayed it down with hot laundry starch to stretch and stiffen it. I used that technique here, but subsequently found it unnecessary for working in this scale, with muslin stretched on plywood. It results in portions of the muslin having slightly veined quality, almost like leather, not unpleasant, but different from subsequent pieces.

As for the scene itself, there is something about the simplicity of the structure here that really appeals to me. If you’ve vacationed in Provincetown you may recognize the spot, where Bradford street ends at Highway 6A, looking towards the dunes, the bay just beyond and the breakwater to the left. In bright morning light, the contrast of the rigid vertical signposts and the fluid horizontal sweep of sand and sky attracted me, with blue-lavender shadows across the bleached pavement.

Deep Forest Trail, Twisted Tree

24” x 18” casein paint on muslin over plywood

I’m not so interested in painting dramatic scenery as in finding drama, nuance, and form in everyday scenes. Here I wanted to create a painting where the only structural elements were trees on a densely forested path. The main focus is on the unusually twisted tree to the right, which I got a little obsessed with. The forest canopy is and interesting skein of branches, leaves and filtered light in pale greens and soft yellows. The forest floor and trail are very soft tones of taupe and faded terra-cotta. This painting is probably most like a theatrical backdrop than any other I’ve done.

2011-04-15T11:05:00.000-07:00

Bruce Starr

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RECENT WORK:

Manayunk Hill, Night

16" x 12" casein paint on muslin over plywood

Manayunk is one of Philadelphia's older districts, with narrow streets winding up the steep hills rising along the Schuykill River. Some parts are gentrified, some not. This scene from a summer night seemed to capture something elemental about the flavor of life in the neighborhood.

Path thru Trees and Bramble

16" x 12", casein paint on muslin over plywood

Most often I choose urban scenes with a little grit to them, but this trail through overgrown vines and bramble also caught my eye, especially the arch formed by the trees. It was an October afternoon, with a somewhat overcast sky that imbued the vegetation with blue and purple hues. I'm especially pleased with how the riot of branches in the bramble came out.

Sunset Stripmall USA

24" x 12" casein paint on muslin over plywood

A couple people have told me they know exactly where the photo for this painting was taken, and they were both wrong. This speaks to the universal nature of the scene; it could be pretty much anywhere in the entire country. I love painting scenes at twilight, and this one worked especially well with the intensity of sunset competing with the vividness of neon and florescent signage.

Three Lanes to Jersey

16" x 12" casein paints on muslin over plywood

I love painting bridges and this is my favorite, the Ben Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia. The massive anchor abutments are classically Roman, contrasting nicely with the classically industrial-age rivetted steel criss-cross beams of the span and cable towers. Like the Eiffel Tower, it has a sinewy grace and balance lacking in both older and more modern structures. This view is a little unusual, the roadway from the pedestrian walkway with a slightly fish-eyed perspective of the Philly terminal abutment, the lane-signal archway, and the first tall tower in the twilight haze.

Quay, Deep Twilight

16" x 12"

Scene from New England’s lovely and densely populated coastline. Quiet solitude as dusk turns to darkness on a beautiful inlet, safely lit and guarded by posted regulations, warnings, and statements of liability limitation.

Melting Snow, Sunset, Cambridge

16" x 12" casein paint on muslin over plywood

This past winter was brutal in the Boston area, with storm after storm dumping snow into our neighborhoods. Sunset one afternoon in early February when the melting had just begun, found more slushy mess to contend with, but created a vividly reflective palette of pink, salmon, and yellow in the cold streetscape.

Lone Tree and Wheatfield

24" x 12" casein paint on muslin over plywood

The photograph for this painting was taken on one of my many bicycle rides on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Though much suburban development has overtaken this beautiful area, there are still wide spaces where farmland and quiet backroads dominate the landscape. Coming over a gentle rise, this simple but dramatic view unfolded, with woods on one side giving way to a clear view of a golden wheatfield and a single tree, in the warm late afternoon sunlight.

Afternoon Snow, Charles River

24" x 12" casein paint on muslin over plywood

The day after Christmas, 2010, was the first blizzard of the season. Hiking with a friend along the Charles River in Boston, I took the picture that inspired this painting. The palette is more subdued, almost monochromatic, than most of my current work, but it helps capture the atmosphere of cold wind and beating snow we felt that wintry afternoon.

Station on the Abandoned Line

12" x 8" casein paint on muslin over plywood

A smaller piece, this captures an unexpected view of an old railway station on an abandoned train line in Bryn Athyn PA, north of Philly. The area is now preserved land and the rail line a hiking trail. Coming out of the deep green woods, one sees this station illuminated from behind, in the light of the clearing for the tiny town. A touch of the urban still intrudes, with a car parked in the side lot.

Manayunk Church, Night

14" x 18", Casein paint on gesso board

One of my first small-scale paintings. Gesso board is much better suited to oil paints than waterbased Casein, a fact I soon discovered and so switched to muslin stretched on plywood. However, I'm still fond of this dramatic night time view of an urban church with lights blazing in the darkened city neighborhood.