Next Stop Philly

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

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

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.

Bruce Starr

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!

click on the pictures to see a larger view

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.