12 Jan Four Day Ray Showcase: Stuart Troxel’s “Stuart After Dark”
Stuart Troxel has been an artist for as long as he can remember, drawing and making art since he was able to talk. In fifth grade he used to draw his own comic strips, featuring his character, Flash the Mouse, and sold them on the playground. Friends would ask him to sign their copies, which fueled his fire to keep creating. By high school he was painting. He took every single art class available, using what he learned on his own time to apply in the art class. His uncle was a painter and gave him a lot of books early on that opened his eyes to different artists.
He started painting professionally in 2014, using cheap materials with a goal that as he progressed, he would start using better materials. His philosophy was, “If I can’t make something good with poor materials, I can’t do anything good with $30 oil paints either.”
stuarttroxel.com
For the most part, Stuart prefers painting people. He likes being able to tell a story, and he can use people to say things about himself without creating a self-portrait. “I can capture people, and it has to be right – not just making it look like them, but capturing that person’s personality. A lot of the people I’ve painted don’t know it because I captured them [in a photograph] on the street and painted [them] afterward.”
One of Stuart’s favorite paintings is his piece, “Show Up for Me”, featuring four girls on the street in Chicago. “I got everything right, it tells a story, it’s one the few ones that I am happy with all the way around.”
His exhibit, “Stuart After Dark” relates to the past few years of COVID and the pandemic—the paintings that came after a dark period. See his works at Four Day Ray Brewery in Fishers from January through March 2022. Most works will be available for sale and can be ordered online through the QR code on the artwork or by contacting Noblesville Creates directly. Meet Stuart at his free public reception on Monday, February 7, 2022 from 4:30pm-7:30pm at Four Day Ray in the brewery.
