"Legacies on the Forret Farmstead" wins at the 2023 Iowa State Fair

A painting that portrays an Eastern Iowa farmstead won 3rd Prize at the 2023 Iowa State Fair. Titled Legacies on the Forret Farmstead, the work features a refurbished John Deere tractor on the Forret family farm, located near Calamus, Iowa. The painting is acrylic on canvas. (A complete story behind the painting can be seen here)

Marlow has earned 4 First Prizes in painting at the Iowa State Fair since 2018. Overall, he has created 8 award-winners in the past 7 years of the juried competition, taking First Prize in both oils and acrylics at the 2020 competition. Marlow’s work has been accepted into the juried exhibition every year since he first entered in 2014.

Historically, the Iowa State Fair Fine Arts competition features work by some of Iowa’s best artists. Iowa native Grant Wood won the competition 4 years in a row, before painting his iconic portrait, “American Gothic” in 1930.  American Gothic is considered to be the most recognized portrait in the world, after the Mona Lisa.

Over 1 million people attend the fair annually, and the Fine Arts Gallery is a visitor favorite.

A Cedar Rapids cityscape wins First Prize at the 2022 Iowa State Fair

A painting that portrays an iconic Cedar Rapids neighborhood won First Prize honors at the 2022 Iowa State Fair. Titled A Big OK … from U.S.A., the work features a classic Art Deco-style gas station, located in the New Bohemia district of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The acrylic painting on canvas was created by local artist Paul Marlow.

Paul Marlow, A Big OK …from U.S.A. Acrylic on canvas. 24 in. x 36 in. First Prize Acrylic/Tempera

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“I entered this painting at the last minute, almost as an afterthought,” said Marlow. He submitted A Big OK … from U.S.A. into competition on the suggestion of his daughter, Betsy. “I had another painting in mind. But she has pretty good insight, and I’m glad I took her advice!”

The title comes from the vintage Pepsi-Cola billboard painted on the side of Tornado’s Grub & Pub. Marlow was drawn to the nostalgia of the location, but also to the sense of mystery and uncertainty of the scene. He stood on the tailgate of his car to capture the best angle for the reference photo used to create the painting.

A close-up of A Big OK… From U.S.A.

“The light and shadow in this work create an underlying sense of drama,” said Marlow. He calls A Big OK… From U.S.A. “an homage to mythic America”, but also portrays an America in troubled times.

377 works were accepted in the 2022 Fine Arts exhibition, representing 258 artists from all around the state of Iowa. Only 2 works of art per person may be submitted in the competition each year, and the work must be created by Iowa artists. “Every year, the quality of the work improves,” said Marlow. “I feel lucky just to get in.”

Marlow has earned 4 First Prizes in painting at the Iowa State Fair since 2018. Overall, he has created 7 award-winning paintings in the past 6 years of the juried competition, taking First Prize in both oils and acrylics at the 2020 competition. Marlow’s work has been accepted into the juried exhibition every year since he first entered in 2014.

Historically, the Iowa State Fair Fine Arts competition features work by some of Iowa’s best artists. Iowa native Grant Wood won the competition 4 years in a row, before painting his iconic portrait, “American Gothic” in 1930.  American Gothic is considered to be the most recognized portrait in the world, after the Mona Lisa.

Over 1 million people attend the fair annually, and the Fine Arts Gallery is a visitor favorite.

The Iowa State Fair Fine Arts Gallery is located on the 3rd floor of the Patty & Jim Cownie Cultural Center on the Iowa State Fairgrounds. The Gallery is open to fairgoers from August 11 - 21, 2022 in Des Moines, Iowa.

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"A Big OK …from U.S.A." Selected for Iowa State Fair Fine Arts Competition

The painting A Big OK …from U.S.A., was selected into juried exhibition for the 2022 Iowa State Fair Fine Arts competition. The Iowa State Fair runs from August 11 - 21, 2022 in Des Moines, Iowa.

The painting depicts a classic Art Deco-styled gas station in the NewBo district, at the corner of 3rd St. and 16th Ave. SW. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

I grew up a few blocks away from a Skelly station very much like this one, in Center Point, Iowa. As a boy, my friends and I would ride our bikes down to Rhinehart's Skelly for a 16 oz. glass bottle of pop. We may have quaffed a Pepsi or two, (not really wanting to share, for fear of backwash). I wonder how many kids rode their bikes to this station over the years, to do the very same thing. Is there a bit of waxing nostalgia going on here? Of course.

Close up of gas station windows in A Big OK …from USA.

This subject might fit the same genre of work created by American Realist painter Edward Hopper. One of Hopper’s better-known works, Gas, was probably in the back of my mind when I came up with the idea to paint this subject. I took the reference photo on an early Sunday morning—6:54 am, March 21, 2021 to be exact—while standing on the tailgate of my SUV to get a better perspective.

Edward Hopper. Gas, 1940. Oil on canvas 26 1/4 in. x 40 1/4 in.

Hopper painted Gas during the summer of 1940, which he spent in Truro, Massachusetts with his wife, Jo. The station in Gas is not an actual location, but an amalgamation of several different gas stations. Although a realist painter, Hopper brilliantly simplified shapes and details. He effectively uses light, shadow, and saturated color to heighten contrast and create mood. In Gas, a strip of forest stretches across the scene from left to right, becoming darker with the road that disappears into total darkness. This creates a feeling of mystery and uncertainty.

A Thomas Kinkade-invented world, this is not. That’s a landfill in the distance of A Big OK …from USA.

In A Big OK …From U.S.A., the streets also disappear behind buildings, but into the light, not darkness. The light in this work gives the scene an underlying sense of drama. Note the long shadows, and the morning light shining through two windows, lightly falling on the pavement in the foreground. The reason I signed this painting in the lower left, instead of the lower right, is because I loved the light and shadows so much, I didn’t want to ruin them with my signature.

Inverted reflections in the garage door windows in A Big OK …from USA.

Also, something interesting is happening with the reflections in the garage door windows as well. A slight concavity in the glass is causing the reflection to flip, so that the image of the red light pole next to the gas pump appears inverted.

Nostalgia that comes with a warning.

The work has an Edward Hopper-inspired love of light, with a nod to our current cultural obsession with nostalgia and fondness for “the good ol’ days”. However, this is not a serene scene. A dramatic sky belies the sense that all is well in America. Dark clouds suggest that trouble may be on the horizon. The hill between the Skelly and stop signs? That’s the city’s old landfill, known as ‘Mt. Trashmore’. A Thomas Kinkade-invented world of idealized perfection, this is not.

Unlike Hopper, who painted exclusively in oils and watercolors, A Big OK …from U.S.A. is painted in acrylics. I pushed the acrylics like oils, using layers and glazing techniques to get the desired effect. The gas pump and slender light pole are the heroes, and symbolizing America, still gleaming before the maelstrom begins.

An original, early 20th century Pepsi sign, and inspiration for the painting’s title. “Bigger Better” referred to a 12 ounce bottle of Pepsi Cola, vs. a 6.5 oz bottle of Coca-Cola, both 5¢ at the time.

The old Pepsi-Cola mural, which adorns the northwest-facing wall of Tornado's Grub & Pub, is a replica of an actual Pepsi sign from the 1930’s. The folks at Tornado's stayed pretty true to the original Pepsi art, though they changed the words on the mural’s callout from “Bigger Better” to “Great Burgers.” Though I have not tried the burgers at Tornado’s, and cannot vouch for their greatness, I’m willing to cut Tornado’s some slack, because it’s still a cool mural.

“Not living in the past, but remembering our past, can give us inspiration and hope for the future.”

All of these elements—the Pepsi mural, the gas pump, the inverted reflections, the concealed light source and dramatic sky—help to create an unfolding narrative. The iconic gas station, isolated and stylized, is recast into an evocative symbol that takes us back to the roots of mythic America and away from 21st-century, here-today-gone-tomorrow culture.

The subtext of A Big OK …from U.S.A. is this: During challenging times, we often go back in time, to seek the familiarity of happier days. Not living in the past, but remembering our past, especially when things are not O.K., can give us inspiration and hope for the future.

"Farm Near Frytown" Selected for 2022 Iowa State Fair

The painting titled Farm Near Frytown has been accepted into juried exhibition for the 2022 Iowa State Fair Fine Arts competition. The Iowa State Fair runs from August 11 - 21, 2022 in Des Moines, Iowa.

The work features a stately white barn and towering grainaries. Frytown is a tiny, unincorporated hamlet 10 miles southwest of Iowa City, Iowa. It is quintessential Iowa. Rich, rolling farmland abounds. Drive down ‘Orval Yoder Turnpike’ (that’s an actual road) or Angle Road SW, and you might see an Amish buggy or two. A friend who grew up just down the road from Frytown said that this painting “brings back sweet memories of riding my bike in to get a bottle of pop at the gas station.”

As a boy, I had a similar experience. I grew up in Center Point, Iowa, 54 miles north of Frytown. My friends and I would ride our bikes down Washington Street, past the L.J. Dennis & Son grain elevator and the old railroad depot, down to Rhinehart's Skelly for a 16 oz. glass bottle of ice-cold RC Cola, Dr. Pepper or Orange Crush. It was liquid nirvana on a dusty summer day, for a mere 35 cents. Quintessential Iowa? You bet.

I started the canvas on Jan 26, 2021, but it’s based on a photo I took 2-1/2 years earlier, while on RAGBRAI, the annual bike ride across Iowa. While I was off-route, I passed this farm west of Frytown. I was so impressed by the scene, I had to turn around and go back. I snapped a photo that I knew would make an interesting painting.

Original photo for Farm Near Frytown.

Clearly there is a sense of nostalgia and appreciation of rural America in Farm Near Frytown.
My goal was to monumentalize a common moment of everyday life on an Eastern Iowa farm. Pristine barns like this are becoming more rare in the Midwest every year. But this painting isn’t all smiles and sunshine. There is a bit of drama going on, and perhaps an unsettled feeling. Many areas of rural America have seen better days, and this painting reveals hints of this. A tumultuous sky, paint peeling from a towering old grain elevator, and the shadows of clouds in the foreground all signal that trouble may be on the horizon.

I decided to apply the same angular treatment and delineation technique from my geometric abstraction style of Abstract I, but with a more realistic subject. It was a challenge to render the organic elements in an abstract style, without reverting back to my realist-painter sensibilities too much. Yet I was able to take a tangle of nondescript bushes in the foreground and give them movement and character. They could almost be a successful painting by themselves.

Close-up of bushes in the foreground of Farm Near Frytown.

Admittedly, I took some artistic license with Farm Near Frytown. Normally, a soybean field is dark green at the end of July in Iowa. But I didn’t want green to dominate this canvas, so I ‘sped up the harvest’, so to speak. This is closer to a September-October field, where I could embellish the work with deep golds, reds, oranges and purples. I am a big fan of work by Edward Hopper, but there may be some Grant Wood influence in Farm Near Frytown.

“What you see in this painting is the way I see the world: Beautiful, and strangely compelling.”

Could I make this painting look exactly like the photograph? Sure.
But what’s the fun in that? A photo is a photo. While photos can be a helpful reference, they often lack something enigmatic—that 'special sauce' that makes you want to look deeper. Visually, a photo may seem to reveal everything, but in doing so, it often misses what lies just beneath the surface. It was important for me to capture this scene with paint on canvas, to show more than what a mere photo can provide. What you see in this painting is the way I see the world: Beautiful, and strangely compelling.

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Production notes: (for my fellow artist-friends) I toned the canvas (imprimatura) with a combination of Yellow Ocher, Burnt Umber and Ivory Black. I stayed close to a Zorn’s palette with this work, but added Ultramarine Blue and tiny hit of Brilliant Blue for the sky. The limited palette of earthy colors (Yellow Ochre, Vermillion [or Cadmium Red Medium], Burnt Umber, plus Ivory Black and Titanium White) create beautifully harmonious color combinations that have a remarkable range. (If you’ve never used a limited palette, I encourage you to give it a try). I also used Utrecht Acrylic Gel Medium (matte) to create blends and glazes.