For several decades the main focus of my work as a painter has been small format still lives. Simple arrangements of familiar things, placed on a shelf in natural light. The subject of the paintings being the interaction between object, light, and the enveloping atmosphere of a given day.
The comfort of repetition, of returning to limited, familiar variables, has allowed me freedom to shift my attention to the act of painting itself. To explore paints quality and ability to create both an allusion of appearance and simultaneously be satisfying in and of itself.
Stanley Bielen was born in the Podkarpackie region of Poland. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and is influenced by the long regional realist tradition called the Philadelphia School. He exhibits nationally and is represented in public and private collections including the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Stanley lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Bridgton, Maine.