CAPE COD LIFE: THE ART OF PAUL SCHULENBURG

Among the many professional artists on the Cape, I chose to champion Paul Schulenburg and his "Waterfront" paintings because the artist adeptly captures a dying breed, commercial fishermen (and women).

I first viewed his paintings at The Addison Gallery in Orleans, MA. Throngs of people weaved in and out at the gallery's reception for local artists. What drew me to his collection were his representational or figurative paintings: this artist knows draftsmanship, and how to use color, light and shadow to illuminate his subjects. Influences? A touch of Hopper, a smattering of Millet or Vermeer, and photo-realism, I surmise, yet very much his own.

Schulenburg's "Waterfront" paintings reveal a way of life, ebbing away with the tide. I can't help feel wonder and pathos when studying his work. In this series, many figures have their backs to the viewer or are looking down, focusing on the task-at-hand or regaining their strength. The artist recognizes that commercial fishing whittles away at a man or woman's body, psyche--a dangerous profession coupled with grueling hours. His figures demonstrate a fierce determination, despite the odds against them of catching a bounty of fish, making a living wage. And, Schulenburg has etched the struggle into his subjects' eyes. Young and old, these fishermen carry a tradition on their backs along with the heaviness of wondering when the legacy behind them will cease to continue. The heaviness of being (nod to Milan Kundera), the desire to escape into darkness via alcohol, drugs, or worse suicide, lingers in the shadows.

However Schulenburg's compositions reveal contrast too: the brightness of the day or the light illuminating wearied faces. His younger men and women have muscled, sinewy bodies with smooth skin either tanned by the summer sun or paled by winter's overcast skies. Schulenburg asks us to admire their physique, some of the men wear their oilskins sans a shirt underneath, revealing their bare chests (not a luxury for the women). The painter's faces may divulge hardship, but the bodies illustrate an artist's reverence for human form.

Harbor Sentinel
(Schulenburg Studio)

Yet, you don't have to search long for more weathered figures. In the painting to the left, a lone man stands on a pier as he looks toward the sea: a long day has finished as a five o'clock shadow brushes the fisherman's face. His eyes are tired, even blurred (Schulenburg includes a head study from this painting on his website), reflecting the man's weariness. The fisherman's arms crossed as if to say, "Leave me alone, or, why am I doing this?" Speculation, I agree, yet I wonder how anyone familiar with the fishing industry couldn't read these thoughts into the man's eyes?

Paul Schulenburg also chooses to paint his men and women in more active representations. Dressed in a long rubber apron and/or waders cleaning the deck of a boat with a hose or shoveling ice into the hold, these fishermen--their bodies laboring without apparent effort--peer downward with the same intensity as Schulenburg's other, more stationary figures.

That said, the painter doesn't ignore individual features. Below, a ginger-haired young man with cropped hair, wears pumpkin-orange oilskins held in place by black suspenders and contrasting cobalt-blue rubber gloves. His pristine outerwear provide evidence that he hasn't begun his arduous task. The clenched left hand sits on the bulkhead, where blood dried by the sun smears the surface, as if the younger fisherman is steeling himself to face the day.

Shadow Contemplation
(The Addison Gallery/Paul Schulenburg)

Fascinating that the artist rarely depicts the harbor or sea in his "Waterfront" portraits. Harkening back to Dutch genre painting, the painter focuses on the daily routine of the fisherman. For Paul Schulenburg's subjects, like enervated fish, struggle on land, but once in the water, they thrive.

For info about the artist/his work, go to Paul Schulenburg's website: http://www.schulenburgstudio.com/ or 

The Addison Gallery, http://www.addisonart.com/

Read my Shadowwater books for more on commercial fishing and Cape Cod life: www.shadowwater.net