Beau Stanton was born in California and has moved 7 years ago to Brooklyn. His studio is located in a child furniture factory, with the most fascinating vue of the Statue of Liberty, the Hudson River and the ships passing by. If you know his work, you will understand why this environment is in such harmony with him. I visited him in February, the ground was covered with snow, the Hudson River banks were full of ice and Beau had at the time a sailors beard which must have warmed him in his freezing studio.
This man is an old soul, an explorer of our past and an erudite with an acute interest in the sacred, as well as in historical ornementations and symbols from all around the world. His incomparable and original style, an implacable oil painting technique and real craftsmanship skills allow him to experiment a wide range of artistic possibilities: he is indeed able to combine fine arts, technology and ancient materials, or to create pieces on stained glass, as could be seen in his London exhibition at Stolen Space Gallery last year. Added to that, the 6 years he has worked as Ron English‘s assistant taught him how to paint big scale murals. You can see his stunning street art pieces mostly in New York (Little Italy, Dumbo, Brooklyn, Queens) but also in numerous cities worldwide (Los Angeles, Detroit, Toronto, Rome and more).
Beau Stanton is passionate about everything nautical, from ship construction, to old wrecks and their ornaments; he hunts nautical materials and artefacts on the shore (you may cross paths with him on Dead Horse Bay in Brooklyn) and antique shops which will inspire some of his works or will be used in his art, as for instance salvaged portholes inside of which he inserts an Ipad with one of his animated paintings. Scroll down to see these – you can also discover Beau’s Submariner animation built into the wall behind an old porthole in one of the 5th floor rooms of the trendy Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
While I was with him, Beau Stanton made 10 hand screen prints of his piece Leviathan. Contrarily to other printing techniques, Beau uses a photographic emulsion to transfer the image onto the screen so that certain areas are left open or closed in the mesh for the ink to pass through in order to print the desired image. Screen printing is a very meticulous and lengthy process which involves adjusting, inking, layering, washing the screen and drying the prints at every step. The whole process is always an experiment with an uncertainty regarding the final colours of each print which depend on multiple factors such as the order of each layer, the quantity of ink and the weight applied to the ink with the squeegee on the screen. As a result, each print is unique, and Beau usually embellishes them one by one by hand. Fascinating! – Don’t hesitate to clic on the images to enlarge them and get the detailed explanation of the printing process.
Link(s):
Beau Stanton's website , Twitter , Facebook , and Instagram
