Framingham artist exhibits at Boston's St. Botolph Club
By Chris Bergeron/DAILY NEWS STAFF
Artist David Wells Roth of Framingham is exhibiting 17 powerful new oil paintings that capture the moody energy of night in New York City.
A Framingham resident who spent 15 years studying the Old Masters in Paris and now works out of Fountain Street Studios, he’s participating with photographer Brian Kaplan in a two-artist show titled “Urban Light, Urban Night.’’
Roth use subtly expressive colors and delicately shaded light to imbue his realistic scenes with the ambience of poetry and music.
His title for his part of the joint show at St. Botolph Club in Boston, “Paintings from the Urban Theater,’’ better conveys the sense of everyday people engaged in mini-dramas pulsing with hope and heartache.
Ranging in size from 12 by 12 inches to 50 by 50 inches, Roth’s scenes of tug boats churning up the East River, a bicyclist pedaling through night traffic and a car zooming across the Brooklyn Bridge evoke a city of romantic yearnings that would be familiar to George Bellows and Thomas Wolfe, Edward Hopper and Frank Sinatra.
Raised in Sudbury, Roth earned a scholarship to Boston University to study art. In 2010, he completed a three-year commission to paint portraits of 33 federal judges in Puerto Rico.
Roth’s paintings and Kaplan’s photos will be on view through March 19 in the St. Botolph Club at 199 Commonwealth Ave., Boston. To visit the show, non-members must be accompanied by a member or they can visit unaccompanied on Wednesdays from 2 to 4 p.m.
To learn about Roth or see his work online, visit www.davidwellsroth.com. To learn about St. Botolph Club, visit www.stbotolphclub.org.