Alan Bull

The farmlands of  New England have influenced me for my entire life.  Both of my  parents grew up on farms and my brothers and sister and I always loved exploring and playing in the barns and in the dirt when we were kids, and when we were older we'd get to help out with the planting, picking or grading.  My father was from Mapleton, Maine and my mother was raised on the Terry Farm in Orient Point, NY and since 1995 I've been painting pictures of the agricultural landscape.  My love of the old farm machinery, regional architecture, coastal imagery and unique light of  Long Island and other locales has  been the subject of much of my work, and I've found my own voice as an artist through that experience of painting what I know.  

My paintings have lately been executed in a sparer, more calligraphic style reminiscent of the monotypes that I produced during the early 90's.  I am interested in seeing how my subjects can be presented with a minimum of paint and pigment, and I use a wide range of brush marks and values to suggest light and form.  I'm striving for a balance between delicacy and power within the same image.

I am inspired by Delft tile work,  sumi brush painting and the comic strip work of George Herriman and other illustrators.  Since the mid-1980's I have been studying in-depth the life and work of artists such as Marsden Hartley, Edward Hopper, Rockwell Kent and Alfred Stieglitz's circle of artists, all of whom have been important teachers to me through their work.  I've  been very fortunate to have been able to live and work in some of the same places that these artists did years ago such as Gloucester, Philadelphia, and Monhegan Island in Maine.  I've also enjoyed painting trips to the Netherlands, England, southern Spain and many regions of France, but I always return home to beautiful New England. 

The work you see is a mixture of recent paintings of the North Fork of Long Island, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire.  Thanks for looking and enjoy!