Size: 10.5″ x 17″ Framed: 17.5" x 24" Modern Larson Juhl coffee-colored frame. Archival mat, regular glass. Barn and Chickens, dated October 25, 1982, is from a series of not fewer than 4 paintings based on photos Masters shot in St. Charles, Missouri in October of 1981. Identified as Mr. Berg’s barn, in each of these paintings, we see a weathered barn with large black openings and a rusted corrugated roof situated in a dry, spare landscape reminiscent of Andrew Wyeth. In this version, Masters loosens his brushstroke, allowing the watercolor to flow more freely across the paper. The two chickens relieve the austerity and negate the otherwise foreboding dark interior. Giclee prints from $30 available at Fine Art America HERE. SHIPPING: $150 flat rate for shipping and packaging within the contiguous 48 states. Please contact us prior to purchase for shipping quotes to Alaska, Hawaii, and international destinations. Contact Robert Morrissey with any questions about this piece.
Size: 10.5″ x 17″ Framed: 17.5" x 24" Modern Larson Juhl coffee-colored frame. Archival mat, regular glass. Giclee prints from $30 available at Fine Art America HERE. SHIPPING: $150 flat rate for shipping and packaging within the contiguous 48 states. Please contact us prior to purchase for shipping quotes to Alaska, Hawaii, and international destinations. Contact Robert Morrissey with any questions about this piece.
The original of this watercolor is sold. Giclee prints from $22 available at Fine Art America HERE. Contact Robert Morrissey with any questions about this piece.
Size: 10.5″ x 17″ Unframed. Grover, Missouri was just one of the countless small towns dotted along Route 66 that no longer exists. Grover Texaco recalls the days when full-service filling stations were manned by courteous uniformed attendants who pumped your gas, cleaned your windshield and checked your oil. Now deserted, we stand at the entrance to the driveway where we mentally replace the Texaco sign atop its pole that had once been flanked by pumps. Rendered in harmonious shades of red, violet, green, and yellow, the site is unexpectedly clean and tidy, free of broken windows, graffiti and debris. Under the setting sun the Grover Texaco Station stands as a memorial to a bygone era. Masters said of his art, “I am striving to provide you with a pleasurable escape, perhaps remind you of something forgotten and most certainly, convey a sense of beauty.” Mission accomplished. Giclee prints from under $30 available at Fine Art America HERE. SHIPPING: $150 flat rate for shipping and packaging within the contiguous 48 states. Please contact us prior to purchase for shipping quotes to Alaska, Hawaii, and international destinations. Contact Robert Morrissey with any questions about this piece.
Size: 17.25" x 10.75" Framed: 17.5" x 24" Modern Larson Juhl coffee-colored frame. Archival mat, regular glass. It's a sunny autumn day in Hermann, MO along the Missouri River. Giclee prints from $30 available at Fine Art America HERE. SHIPPING: $150 flat rate for shipping and packaging within the contiguous 48 states. Please contact us prior to purchase for shipping quotes to Alaska, Hawaii, and international destinations. Contact Robert Morrissey with any questions about this piece.
Size: 17 1/4" x 23 1/4″ This watercolor is unframed. An abandoned barn and dead tree stand on a gently rising hill. Daylight shows through the dilapidated structure whose dry, peeling walls and precarious roof boards echo the dead tree, both on the verge of collapse. The profusion of colorful wildflowers in the foreground and dense band of trees on the horizon breathe life into this otherwise bleak view. The grey wood harmonizes beautifully with the clouds, whose eminent rain hastens the decay as it nourishes the landscape. Masters was drafted into WWII shortly after graduating from high school. Having seen combat action in Italy, one wonders if the tree, whose trunk resembles the VE sign seen around the world at the end of the war, represents the horrors he witnessed. It’s worth noting Masters painted this tree on several occasions. Giclee prints from under $30 available at Fine Art America HERE. SHIPPING: $45 flat rate for shipping and packaging within the contiguous 48 states. Please contact us prior to purchase for shipping quotes to Alaska, Hawaii, and international destinations. Contact Robert Morrissey with any questions about this piece.
Size: 12.5″ x 18.5″ Framed: 20" x 25.5" Modern Larson Juhl coffee-colored frame. Archival mat, regular glass. Over the course of his career, Masters painted at least 10 poignant still lives featuring a single dilapidated lantern in various settings. In “Lantern in the Snow” it stands in the undisturbed snow against a weathered stockade fence. Dented, with a broken handle and missing cap, the dead leaves reinforce the mood. And yet, its vertical stance and intact glass, rendered in gorgeous, harmonious colors, imbue the relic with strength and dignity. Indeed, Masters depicts the lantern as a portraitist would an elderly sitter, capturing the essence of a long purposeful life, endowed with a patina earned from years of service, tinged with the sadness that comes with age. An art critic wrote in 1978, “A Stan Masters watercolor is realism at its best… One thing that is always fascinating in a Masters scene is the very real feeling you get of what is going on outside of the picture.” Here, Masters abruptly ends the fence and the few blades of grass, bent in the wind, subtly point to something around the corner, drawing us further into the painting and its complex narrative. Giclee prints from $30 available at Fine Art America HERE. SHIPPING: $150 flat rate for shipping and packaging within the contiguous 48 states. Please contact us prior to purchase for shipping quotes to Alaska, Hawaii, and international destinations. Contact Robert Morrissey with any questions about this piece.
Size: 13″ x 20″ Framed: 19" x 25" Modern Larson Juhl coffee-colored frame. Archival mat, regular glass. It's a beautiful, bright autumn day at the Market Basket, a popular little store as evidenced by the path through the leaves. Giclee prints from $30 available at Fine Art America HERE. SHIPPING: $150 flat rate for shipping and packaging within the contiguous 48 states. Please contact us prior to purchase for shipping quotes to Alaska, Hawaii, and international destinations. Contact Robert Morrissey with any questions about this piece.
Size: 12" x 13.5" Framed: 21.5" x 23" About the frame: Antique birdseye maple frame, 19th c. Archival linen mat, giltwood liners, museum glass. 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. 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. 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. Giclee prints from $30 available at Fine Art America HERE. SHIPPING: $150 flat rate for shipping and packaging within the contiguous 48 states. Please contact us prior to purchase for shipping quotes to Alaska, Hawaii, and international destinations. Contact Robert Morrissey with any questions about this piece.
Size: 13" x 20" Framed: 28" x 34" Gorgeous 19th century walnut frame with well-figured veneers and boxwood stringing. The mat is linen and the filet surrounding the artwork is water gilt. All materials are acid-free. Museum glass. Freshly fallen snow blankets everything, including the steering wheel and treads of the old Farmall tractor. Despite the weathered state of the buildings, the grounds appear neat and tidy, with only a few wisps of grass peeking through the snow, suggesting that when Spring arrives, the store will reopen and the Old Farmall Tractor will be called into service for another year. Giclee prints from $30 available at Fine Art America HERE. SHIPPING: $150 flat rate for shipping and packaging within the contiguous 48 states. Please contact us prior to purchase for shipping quotes to Alaska, Hawaii, and international destinations. Contact Robert Morrissey with any questions about this piece.- Out of stock
Size: 11″ x 11". Frame: 19.5" x 19.5" antique 19th century birds-eye maple frame with original gilt outer liner and modern water gilt filet. Linen mat, museum glass. Universally acknowledged as the most pleasing of all proportions, the Golden Ratio has been studied by mathematicians since ancient Greece. Artists throughout the ages- from Leonardo da Vinci to Salvador Dali- have utilized its elegant properties. The Golden Ratio or Golden Mean describes the relationship between the lengths of two line segments. Segments A and B below are said to be in the Golden Ratio because the length of A is to the length of B as the length of the whole line (A + B) is to A.
As indicated below, Masters organized “Winter Perch” around the Golden Ratio. The massive oak tree divides the picture into two unequal, but proportionate rectangles. The lower main limbs then subdivide the left side into a square and another smaller rectangle. This orderly division of the picture plane provides structure for the jagged, haphazard smaller branches that flash across the sky like lightning. 
The alert cardinal, the true subject of the painting, brings the composition to life. Note its placement near the intersection of the extended lines, its importance accentuated by the encircling branches. The row of buildings anchors the painting, and the complex rooflines lend further structure while answering the angularity of the branches. Sunshine breaks through the clouds, breathing further life into the picture while casting interesting shadows and warming the blues, browns and grays. The presence of the other leafless trees reassures us the mighty oak is not dead and that in a few months all will be green and alive again. Masters’ widow, Carlene, revealed “Winter Perch” (not the artist’s title) depicts the view from their living room window. The tree stands in the front lawn with the houses directly across the street. It’s difficult to know what Masters thought of this painting. There are no others like it in his oeuvre. Masters was frugal and if he didn’t like a painting, he usually worked the other side of the paper, which is not the case here. It was not found with his body of work, which came to light shortly after his death in 2005. Rather, Carlene found it several years later, tucked away on a shelf in the garage. Giclee prints from under $30 available at Fine Art America HERE. SHIPPING: $45 flat rate for shipping and packaging within the contiguous 48 states. Please contact us prior to purchase for shipping quotes to Alaska, Hawaii, and international destinations. Contact Robert Morrissey with any questions about this piece.
