Phil Starke is an artist who brings a bright, painterly sensibility to his portrayals of the landscape of the American West and Southwest.
Starke was exposed to European art as a boy while his military family lived in Germany. He later studied at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, and was drawn to the color and light of the American Southwest.
His work has been featured in numerous publications, including American Artist, Southwest Art and Art of the West.
I particularly enjoy his paintings in which he has areas of shadow falling across part of the composition, part of his fascination with the play of light within a landscape. He demonstrates a subtle appreciation of lower color and value contrasts in areas within paintings that also include high-contrast, high-chroma passages.
Starke paints both on location and in the studio. He also paints still life and figurative work, and his landscapes often incorporate figures.
Unfortunately, the gallery on his website is one of those annoying arrangements in which you must keep your mouse positioned over the thumbnail while viewing an image, instead of simply clicking on the image you want to see, but there is a more traditionally arranged small works section, and you can find additional images on the sites of galleries in which his work is represented (linked below).
Starke conducts workshops in both plein air and studio painting. He has also published instructional DVD’s and books, the most recent of which is Plein Air Take-Along Tip Guide.
He has a site for Starke Studio, devoted specifically to his instructional materials, and maintains a related blog, Between the Palette Scrapings. He also participates in the Tuscon Art Academy online instruction (the next session starting March 25, 2013). You can find short preview clips of his instructional videos on YouTube.
