City Sunlight

Stan Masters (1922-2005) American
"City Sunlight",
Watercolor on paper, signed lower right.
Image: 14" x 20"
Frame: 28" x 33"

Bright sunlight directs attention to the left side of this colorful picture, where three friends engage in casual conversation. The approaching pedestrian, framed by the light pole and door jamb, balances the scene. Green storefronts connect the two vignettes, as the yellow Auto Glass sign answers the building and car. The second story windows reflect the buildings across the street, which account for the strong shadow line. Complex and carefully organized, “City Sunlight” beautifully captures a pleasant and fleeting moment in an American city.

Framed in a 19th century cherry frame with applied black molding. All materials are acid free; museum glass.
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Stan Masters (1922-2005)
In 1971, after 20 years in commercial art, Stan Masters began his career as a watercolor artist. Following a brief period of experimentation, he adopted the American Realist tradition of Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth. “I believe that art is, or should be, a form of communication”, he wrote in his artist’s statement. “It ought to be understandable. For that reason, I choose to work in a realistic manner. My subject matter deals with things I know about or places I’ve been”.

Humble beginnings inform his gorgeous watercolors: he grew up in a one room railroad shanty with neither water nor electricity where the tracks passed within six feet of the front porch. Thus, his subject matter depicts small town and rural America. And, of course, the railroad.

In a review of a 1978 solo exhibit a critic proclaimed, “A Stan Masters watercolor is realism at its best. What [Masters] sees is so direct and the way he sees it is so logical that his intent and his achievement are timeless and universal. We find in his paintings unsuspected technical brilliance, always purposely hidden so as not to intrude on the overall effect he wants to create.”

Despite participation in numerous competitions and exhibitions with similar rave reviews, sales throughout his career remained minimal. He died in 2005, all but forgotten. Today, Masters is finally receiving the attention he deserves, and his paintings now hang in two museums and numerous private and corporate collections.