For the Love of Brush and Paint

Scott, Bill. "For the Love of Brush and Paint." American Artist November 2005: 53-57.

This article is about Ed Bronstein, a Philadelphia artist. Ed, who was previously and architect, only started painting at the age of forty-four. Ed is an expressionist, who has taken to painting with a passion. His teenage daughter, who was painting and drawing for her high school classes, was the inspiration for Ed to get into painting.

Ed Bronstein has taken many painting and art classes. He started with courses in pastels and drew still lifes of interior spaces. Next Ed moved on to academy courses. One of his instructors, Christine Lafuente, became and important influence in Ed's paintings. He took classes from her for four years.

Ed's has a studio in his home. He has often painted still lifes of rooms of his home and portraits of his children. Unlike many artist who are most motivated in the morning, Ed can paint all day. He enjoys going to the New Jersey shore to paint outside. He often uses a digital camera to photograph landscapes and other things he would like to paint later in his studio.

Ed prefers to paint on smaller canvases although occasionally he has painted on canvases as large as 36" x 48". He likes smaller canvases because he prefers to finish his paintings in one or two sittings. He has in the past painted on Mylar because of the smooth surface, however he prefers to paint on birch and maple plywood panels.

Ed always paints when he travels, but has just recently started to travel with the purpose being to paint. He has spent time at an artists' colony, Cill Rialaig Project, in Ballinskelligs, Ireland in 2001. In the first part of 2005 Ed spent some time at an art studio in Vermont. He worked on figures and landscapes.

Lately Ed has been working on a series of portraits of other artists that he is friends with and also portraits of his family. He really enjoys the social aspect of painting people. He states that he thinks "painting is more self-indulgent than architecture because you do not need to please anybody." At this point he can't think of ever giving up painting.

I think this article was interesting mostly for the pictures. Maybe someday Ed Bronstein will be famous and I can look back and say, "Oh, I read an article about him before he made it big." In the meantime, I didn't find the article to be that informative or enterntaining.