The Letter

On Saturday June 19th, DuSold will give a portrait demonstration in the Main Studio at 2:30 pm. Visitors are invited to witness history as DuSold paints the first work painted in the studio since Solowey’s death in 1978. RSVP

Like Ben, Paul is one of the few accomplished portrait painters who not only can capture the personality of his sitter, but also speak intelligently to an audience while doing it. We are thrilled to have Paul be the first painter to use Ben’s remarkable studio.

This is history in the making, so you don’t want to miss this event.

The James Michener Art Museum continues its tradition of studio visits with a special tour “of the only remaining intact studio from the Golden Age of Bucks County Art.. Located on a 34 acre farm in Bedminster, the views from the studio are virtually the same as when Ben Solowey arrived in 1936. The artist felt he saw a landscape to paint every time he looked out his studio window. “When you visit the studio of Ben Solowey, you do more than see an exhibition, you enter an artist’s world,” wrote Edward Sozanski, Philadelphia Inquirer Art Critic. “The charm of [the Studio] is its sense of intimacy and immediacy. Nothing is under glass or roped; rather, it conveys the uncanny feeling that Solowey has just stepped away from his easel and will be back any minute….you couldn’t imagine wanting to be anywhere else.” The Solowey Studio presents two interpretive exhibitions per year of the work of Solowey and his contemporaries. The recent Charles Ward show at the Michener began as a smaller exhibition at the Studio. On view in June will be a new exhibition of the work of contemporary painter Paul DuSold, and his selection of Solowey works.”

The tour runs  10 am – 12 pm. Fee: members $15/non-members $20. Space is limited. To reserve a place,  click here.

The Studio will be open to its regular public hours that day from 1 to 5 pm.

Here’s what Edward Sozanski, Art Critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote about Paul DuSold’s work in a 2005 exhibition. Under the heading “Echo of the Masters”:

Paul DuSold’s “atmospheric” realism, displayed in an exhibition of 28 still lifes at the Gross McCleaf Gallery, might, as he says, be influenced by artists of 16th-century Venice, especially in the slightly hazy way he describes form.

Yet to my eye his elemental compositions of fruit, bread and flowers set against dark backgrounds also owe something to later Spanish masters such as Diego Velázquez, Francisco Zurbarán, and especially Luis Melendez.

DuSold’s luminous oils combine the shimmering fluidity of the Venetian style with the classical rigor and slightly austere dignity realized in the Spanish approach. Martin Johnson Heade, a 19th-century American, also comes to mind.

Like the Spaniards, DuSold chooses simple, compact subjects – fruits and breads in containers, often set on a block of marble to create spatial variety, and accented with flowers.

Each grouping is a tiny universe of interacting objects held together by visual gravity. This effect is particularly apparent in a painting of a large cabbage and a small apple in a bowl, with an even smaller shell on a lower level.

The dark grounds not only create a spotlight effect, they encapsulate the brighter subjects in a cocoon of silence that isolates each group from the outside world. Ultimately, each picture becomes a finely calibrated demonstration of perfect equilibrium involving shape, light, color and texture – the basic tools of painting.

August. Oil on canvas. 16 x 10 in., 2009 Paul DuSold.

The Studio of Ben Solowey is pleased to announce a new exhibition, EYE TO EYE: Paintings and Drawings by Paul DuSold & Ben Solowey, featuring a collection of artwork by award-winning painter Paul DuSold and works by Ben Solowey (1900 – 1978) selected by DuSold. This is first show at the Solowey Studio of a contemporary artist in sixteen years. The exhibition will open to the public on Saturday June 5th at the Solowey Studio in Bedminster, PA with a reception from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The installation will continue Saturdays and Sundays, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., through Sunday, June 27, 2010.

“Paul DuSold carries the drama of the Spanish painters and the subtlety of the Venetian masters in his brush,” says David Leopold, Director of The Studio of Ben Solowey. “His palette is lush but not flamboyant. He describes his work as ‘atmospheric realism,’ and his canvases evoke a beautiful luxury of everyday objects. He favors still lifes, portraits, and figure compositions, and we will present a selection of these paintings and drawings in our new show.

“In our Main Studio, we’ve asked Paul to chose works by Ben Solowey from our collection. Our goal is to see Ben’s work through the eyes of another artist, rather than a historian or curator, as well as to showcase the work of a painter who shares with Ben Solowey a love of beauty, color, light, and form.”

On Saturday June 19th, DuSold will give a portrait demonstration in the Main Studio at 2:30 pm. Visitors are invited to witness history as DuSold paints the first work painted in the studio since Solowey’s death in 1978. RSVP

“Like Ben, Paul is one of the few accomplished portrait painters who not only can capture the personality of his sitter,” explains Leopold, “but also speak intelligently to an audience while doing it. We are thrilled to have Paul be the first painter to use Ben’s remarkable studio.” The inviting studio, and the 34 acre property it sits on, were created and landscaped by Solowey after he left New York in 1942. The Studio has been featured in Architectural Digest, Pennsylvania Heritage, The Discerning Traveler, and Bucks County Town and Country Living.

“In honor of our opening on June 5th we will continue our tradition of serving homemade refreshments in the Solowey home, “ says Leopold. “The two hundred-year old farm house was restored by Ben and is filled with museum quality furniture handcrafted by him. This will probably be the only time we open the house this year, so this truly is a special event.”