Stanley Woodward

     Stanley Woodward is a gentleman, tall and handsome, thoughtful, yet never taking things too seriously. I readily accepted his invitation to see his art at his house and studio. Nevertheless, I was totally unprepared for the sheer variety, quality, and brilliance of the paintings that adorned each wall. ​There were fresh flowers, mysterious abstractions, portraits, seascapes, landscapes and more. They all emitted a light that was blinding, which I loved. I recognized many of my heroes in art influences. He later explained that he had studied art in Philadelphia, New York and France, with well known academic painters and knew many of the great modernist innovators in art when in Paris. He had been making art for 60 years, having studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, and with Earl Horter and Leon Kelly in Philadelphia. After serving with the Army Air Corps during the war, he studied at the Art Students League on the GI Bill with Yasuo Kunioshi, and again on a GI Bill in Paris in 1947 - 49 at La Grande Chaumiere under well well-known Emile Othon Friesz and at the Beaux Arts under Albert Gleizes.



     This rigurous training taught Woodward the basics from which to rebel or strike out on his own. His world travels with his parents when he was very young, and his time in Paris just after WWII, were just as important for his art formal training. He was enthraled with the art of the European Modernists, as his own work still attests. He met many of them, even lived next door to one of the famous co-founders of Cubism, Georges Braques in 1947 (and was regularly called in to translate when Braque had a client who did not speak French). He also became friends with the painter Nicolas de Stael, and others including sculptor Giacometti. While in Paris he soaked in the philosophy and art of the time first hand, becoming friends also with Existentialist philosophers so important for the American Abstract Expressionists, Jean Paul Sartre and others. In 1948 and 1949, Woodward's art was included in the historic Salon du Printemps and Salon d'Automne. The art from 1947 until 1972 called by Woodward his "First Period", was more traditional and tightly painted than the expressionist works that would follow.



     Woodward's travels and environments also influences his painting. The light-filled atmosphere of Southern France in the summers of 1948 - 49 and his love of sailing and salt water he counts as stimuli for his art. He moved to Spain in 1949 and lived on the Mediterranean from 1949 - 1981. From the late 1950s to 1973, Woodward created a yatch yard on the island of Mallorca, and designed hardware and systems for the vessels. The yard became known and exported their yatchs; both power and sail, to France, England, the United States, Germany, as well as Spain. At the end of 1973, Woodward sold the boatyard, and jumpstarted painting again full time. He refers to this period as his "Second Period", in which he drifted away from representational art and created paintings from his imagination with more lyrical dimension. He explains, "If I could design and build a boat out of my imagination, I felt this would be possible for painting as well".



     Woodward moved to Philadelphia in 1981, and refers to the art created since then as his "third Period." He exhibited in Philadelphia, New York and Chicago, before moving to Virginia in 1993. The paintings in this Third Period alternate between representational and abstract. Woodward is equally at home in both modes. He talks about the give and take between the two, explaining that his "flower portraits",  (his own wonderful term), sometimes suggest and engender his more abstract paintings.



     Woodward's command of the history of art is evident in his work. His list of favorites would include Velazquez, Goya, Matisse, Miro, Kandinsky and Thomas Eakins. I see parallels with Odilon Redon (in some of his flower paintings), Vincent Van Gogh (in his luscious texture and brushwork), Giacometti (in his Expressionist portraits); Andre Derain (in his seascapes), and the list goes on and one, and includes those already mentioned (Braque, De Steal, Matisse and more).



     Although we can make parallels, Woodward's paintings are uniquely his own. No matter what the subject, the result is original. He is adept at capturing in line and color, motion, space and mystery. His humor, his love of light and life and his verve of seeming ease with which he accomplishes these paintings shines through each new creation.



Lyn Bolen Warren

Director, Les Yeux du Monde