Starkweather Catalogue

Figure 12: Sunlit Cliffs, Magdalen Islands. 1938.
Figure 11: An Artist’s Bedroom, Grand Manan. 1938.
In 1920, keeping with his habit of traveling, painting and exhibiting,
Starkweather decided to begin the first of many trips to Maine and
the Maritime Provinces of Canada. It was also the beginning of
his interest in watercolor, to which eventually he became devoted.
In fact, during the last half of his life, the greatest portion of
Starkweather’s work was done in watercolor. Whether or not this
change in medium was related to the disappointment of his final
show at the Folsom Gallery is impossible to know, but the facility,
speed and fluidity he adapted in his use of watercolor served him
well for the rest of his professional life. In addition, he established
a new work pattern that he would follow for many years. We know
that he always painted while he traveled, but at this time in his life,
his travels took a different turn. He took trips with small, intimate
groups of friends – specifically as painting sojourns. He worked
continually, recording visually the places he visited, the people
around him, and the rooms he stayed in. In this sense, he followed
in the tradition of a long line of artists whose travels became their
works: Sargent’s visions of Venice, Twachtman’s views of Newport
waters, Chase’s Long Island beaches, Homer’s brilliant Caribbean
series and Hopper’s Cape Cod paintings. For Starkweather and
friends in 1920, the place was Eastport, Maine. The brilliant summer
light captured in broad brush strokes of pure color juxtaposed with
bold contrasts of light and dark are ever-recurring characteristics of
his work. The intensity and concentration of the artist lost in his
work in the compelling 1920 portrait of Lars Hoftrup make the title
All for Art and the World Well Lost (fig. 2) wonderfully accurate.
Also in 1920 Starkweather painted a view of the town of Eastport in
Eastport, Maine (fig. 3), with its church and steeple in the background
and its houses and boats afloat in the foreground, all flooded with
the brilliant summer light in strokes of shimmering color. The town,
quaint and picturesque, evokes a time of tranquility and serenity,
just as Starkweather saw it, and just as one might see it today.
In the summers of 1921 and 1922, Starkweather and his group
returned to the picturesque sites, dividing their time between
Eastport, Maine, and Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick,
Canada, just off the Maine coast. The artist captured painting on
Grand Manan Island in the watercolor, Karl Larson (fig. 4), is so
engrossed in his labor, he seems oblivious to the waves crashing
on the craggy rocks below him. Yet there is a serenity and peace
in his absorption, accentuated by Starkweather’s clever use of the
churning white foam, halo-like around the artist’s head. It frames
the dark shadowed face and dark brown hair with a light that is
almost spiritual, if not angelic.
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