“[Melville Stark] was born in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, and earned a degree from Stroudsburg State College in Physical Education, but he had already started painting and subsequently abandoned Physical Education. He later studied art at the University of Pennsylvania, Syracuse University, and the Philadelphia Museum School. Major influences on him were landscape painters Cullen Yates, Walter Baum, and Anthony Thieme. He studied privately with Yates in New York, and Yates encouraged Stark to go to Paris, which he did but hung around the cafes with artists rather than attending any academy” (1).
“In the 1930s Stark became a teacher at the Kline-Baum School. He also began to travel to the coastal town of Rockport, Massachusetts, where he rented a home every summer until his death. In Rockport, Stark studied with Anthony Thieme, one of the leading painters of the Rockport School. In 1945 he joined the staff at Cedar Crest College. By the 1950s he became the director of art at Muhlenberg College, and was a founder of the Lehigh Art Alliance. In 1956, the year of Walter Baum's death, Stark was elected the director of the Allentown Art Museum. In 1962 he was given first award for the best landscape by the National Society of Painters in Casein at the National Arts Club in New York City” (2).
“Stark began to winter in Florida in 1969, still maintaining his home in Pennsylvania, even after accepting a job at the Longboat Key Art Center where he continued to paint marine scenes en plein-air. Stark died in Allentown on October 28, 1987” (3).
Reference:
1.
Askart staff. Melville Stark [internet]. [cited 2016 Jan 11]. Available from: http://www.askart.com/artist_bio/Melville_F_Stark/90673/Melville_F_Stark.aspx
2.
Gratz Gallery Staff. Melville Stark [internet]. 2009 [cited 2016 Jan 11]. Available from: http://www.gratzgallery.com/inventory/index.php?page=out&id=375
3.
U.S. Department of State Staff. Mel (Melville) Stark [internet]. [cited 2018 Apr 17]. Available from: https://art.state.gov/personnel/mel_melville_stark/