Montclair artist Paula Stark was born and raised in New England and studied painting at the University of New Hampshire before moving to study at Parsons School of Design. Stark often employs cut-paper collage, oil, and wax to explore the same subject simultaneously, allowing her to use the characteristics of each medium to fully investigate her subject. She begins by creating small landscape studies, rendered on location, that capture the sense of color and mood—a process that makes her an ideal artist for a collaboration with Tiny Gallery. For her larger pieces, she heads into the studio, working from memory, imagination, and photographs. “I’ve always been inspired by the world around me. To me, the variations in nature are endless and surprising. In my work, I try to evoke a place, a moment of beauty…when the light hits just so.” 

The success of Stark’s work lies in her magnificent evocation of nature and all its moods, and the artist selects her moment carefully. Time of day and lighting are paramount. Stark admires the dramatic light of the Dutch landscape painters—especially Jacob van Ruisdael, who celebrated both nature’s grandeur and its solitude. 

Like a drive in the country whose beauty and serenity register in the periphery of one’s vision, Stark’s paintings evoke a memory of nature—dimmed but nevertheless immediately and peculiarly poignant.

Stark's work has been reviewed in the New York Times, ArtNews, and Artists Magazine. She  exhibits her landscape paintings throughout the United States.