Rob Stark

A pensive, solitary and sometimes playful mood pulses under the surface of Bob Stark's superior realistic paintings, which hinge on the successful use of chiaroscuro to create a center stage for still-life objects.

Heavily influenced by the Dutch and early Spanish still-life painters, Stark "strives to pull the viewer into his paintings through the representation of minute detail, yet, through his interior and exterior compositions, he intends to give the subject an atmosphere and sense of place with which to coexist and dominate," according to his artist statement. Having disciplined himself to work at least four hours a day, Stark will repair to his home studio with an eclectic musical playlist that ranges from classical music to "crazy hard rock" and work during hours when the sun has set.

"I like to spend as much time outside as I can," said the artist, who finds his inspiration and subject matter in the natural world, which he relates on canvas with a dramatic emotional gauze as real as oil glazing he employs to reflect or absorb light off the canvas. A set of apricots, for example, receive a heavily emotional background landscape of orange light and cloudscapes.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BOB STARK "Naked" These are the paintings Stark exhibits at Quidley and Co. on Main Street and has exhibited at the Cavalier Gallery on island, the Wynn Falconer Gallery in Chatham and The Gardner Colby Gallery in Naples, Florida.

Stark has another group of paintings, however, that the artist makes for the sake of emotional and creative exercise. On Facebook recently, Stark posted a painting of a horse's head in the foreground of a misty field with a single, solitary tree in the distance. It provoked a series of passionate compliments.

"Sometimes, I'll paint for a broader audience and sometimes I'll paint more unexpected subject matter," he said. "I really like that horse painting because it was something I wasn't sure I could do."

An island native, Stark left Nantucket to attend the Taft School and then Georgetown University, where he majored in Chinese/Asian studies and Fine Arts. After a stint living in San Francisco, Stark returned to the island in 1992, where he worked in landscaping and house painting until he could support himself full-time as an artist. That shift happened in 1996, and today, Stark makes himself paint at least four hours a day in his workspace at home. He also dedicates time to prepping canvases and sketching.

PHOTO BY ROB BENCHLEY Bob Stark Stark, who is happy to take commissions, said he derives greater emotional energy out of taking his time with a painting.

"Some people get their emotional energy from painting quickly," Stark said. "But for me, when I paint slow, I tend to think about what I'm painting more and more, and that may bring more of my emotions into the painting."

The artist even makes subtle, jocular reference to his creative speed with the inclusion of the occasional snail in his still-lifes.

Stark's artist statement expands: "He strives to pull the viewer into his paintings through the representation of minute detail, yet, through his interior and exterior compositions, he intends to give the subject an atmosphere and sense of place with which to coexist and dominate."

In his painting, "Oblivious," Stark combines his sense of humor with his sense of somber feeling, as a lemon hangs by a string over the figure of a snail.

"I'm not necessarily trying to convey anything," Stark said. "It's more that I'm painting from a mood I appreciate." I