Old Truck at Times Beach

Stan Masters (1922-2005) American
"Old Truck at Times Beach",
Watercolor on paper, signed lower right.
Image: 12" x 13.5"
Frame: 21.5" x 23"

Old Truck at Times Beach, painted in 1979, depicts an abandoned 1956 Dodge dump truck. The blue cab and red box reinforce the ‘Americana’ feel of the picture. The colorful windshield stickers attest to its many years of service while the empty headlight sockets confirm its dereliction. The enigmatic wooden pole, a common device employed by Masters and perhaps borrowed from Edward Hopper, adds variety and interest to the composition. The foraging chickens animate the scene, while the yellow license plate subtly connects the truck to the golden fields beyond.

Times Beach, pop. 2,000, was a small town in rural Missouri situated on Route 66. In the early 1980s, it became the site of one of the most notorious environmental disasters in the nation’s history when the EPA discovered dioxin contaminated oil had been sprayed on the roads. The residents were evicted and their homes demolished. In 1999, after a massive cleanup, Times Beach was reborn as Route 66 State Park. Complete with a visitor's center, picnic area and trails, it stands today, like Old Truck, as a memorial to America’s beloved Mother Road.

Framed in a period 19th century birds-eye maple frame with a gilt liner. 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.