All Aboard

An inaugural exhibit at the newly restored Hopewell train station puts the nostalgic artwork of Jerry Cable ‘On Track.’

By: Ilene Dube
   For the moment, turn off CNN and NPR. Put away those magnificent color photo spreads in The New York Times of Northern Alliance soldiers in their ethnic garb, holding rifles, against the wheat-colored desert landscapes of Afghanistan.
   For a pleasant escape, open your eyes to the world of Jerry Cable, whose landscape paintings evoke more innocent times — archetypal red barns, white farmhouses tipped with snow, orderly rows of haystacks, sleek brown horses pulling a carriage through drifts of powdery white stuff that comes from nature, not the laboratory.
   Flemington-based artist Jerry Cable will exhibit 30 of his bucolic oil paintings at the newly restored train station in Hopewell Borough, Nov. 3-4. After that, the exhibit travels to the Rhinehart-Fischer Gallery in Trenton.
   This is the first art exhibit to be held at the train station, which itself will take you on a nostalgic journey back in time. With industrial red brick, a mansard roof made up of intricately patterned hexagonal slate tiles, an ornamental iron fence ringing the top like a cake decoration, gingerbread fretwork and granite keystones atop each of the arched windows, this architectural gem evokes Edward Hopper’s urban landscapes, or even the North Pole created by artist Chris Van Allsburg in The Polar Express.
   Mr. Cable has lived in Hunterdon County for 10 years and drove by the station when its windows were boarded with plywood — albeit painted to resemble the original windows — dreaming of it as an exhibition space.
   "Train stations are an American icon — every town had one. And my work is very Americana," says Mr. Cable, who is constantly on the lookout for historic backdrops.
   Built in 1876, the Hopewell Borough Railroad Station is one of the oldest in the state and one of a surviving pair built by the Delaware/Bound Brook Railroad. The other is in Pennington and has been converted to a private residence. Built in the Second Empire style, the Hopewell station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. Originally, Hopewell was a stop between New York and Philadelphia. The railroad fueled the development of Hopewell from hamlet to village, a center for shipping agricultural products. By the end of the 19th century, a bank, stores, hotel and churches sprung up, as well as new houses.
   Over the years, business centers in New York changed location, and by the 1960s, there were only two trains a day rattling down the tracks. In the late 1970s, the track became part of the Conrail system, while responsibility for passenger service fell to New Jersey Transit.
   Within a year, passenger service was discontinued, and NJTransit offered to sell the station to the borough for $1. Fearing the costs of restoration and maintenance, the borough declined, and in 1985 a private developer purchased the 4.3-acre property with visions of condominiums and a restaurant.
   By 1993, none of these plans materialized, and the developer sold the complex to the borough for more than $300,000. In 1995, with a grant from the New Jersey Department of Transportation ISTEA Enhancement program, the borough was able to move ahead with the $1 million restoration project to bring the facility up to code for fire, electric, plumbing and handicap accessibility; provide heating and cooling; and restore architectural details and building components.
   In winter 2001, the building reopened as a community center, where Boy Scouts and step dancers gather regularly. Two freight trains rumble along the tracks daily, and proposals have been bandied about to restore passenger service to the line.
   The station’s first art exhibit will include a series of paintings Mr. Cable made of the station itself. Over the years, he has taken photographs for paintings. Once the renovation was complete, he spent two months inside the building sketching out, and outside sketching in. At night, he would turn on all the lights inside so that he could see what it looked like from the outside.
   "As an artist, certain things speak to you," says Mr. Cable. "You go by every day, but certain times of the day, the light just gets to you. That’s the way it is with this building. I’ve watched it so many years, have seen it go from abandoned and derelict to this.
   "The building itself is stationery and solid, but it is a presence. Now, with all this activity — people and trains coming and going, cars parking — it is becoming active again as a gathering place."
   Although he was trained to paint en plein air, Mr. Cable says he no longer has the luxury to do so, and instead works in his studio late at night from photographs he has made during the day. "If you don’t get it right when you first see it, sometimes you can’t get back to it, even on another day at the same place and the same hour. It changes from moment to moment; the exact combination of light and atmosphere may never occur again."
   Another problem with painting outdoors is "you have wind and cold, and the paints freeze. I like the coziness of my studio." In the studio, he surrounds himself with his photos to get back in the moment.
   From now until February is his favorite time to paint. "Look at the trees. We are losing the golden afternoon light. As the leaves disappear and you can see more, you get more dramatic shadows. The light changes so fast, you catch little subtleties you can only see this time of year."
   Mr. Cable’s passion for pastoral scenes incubated on the Ohio farm where he was born and raised. He began painting at 10 and by age 13 was accepting commissions to paint house portraits. His first art teacher was his mentor and source of inspiration, and encouraged him to pursue a career in art. She instructed him to go east, to study at Pratt, and that was the only college to which he applied. Fortunately, he got in.
   His first job after Pratt, in 1979, was as assistant art director for the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour — before computers. "We cut out color paper and maps to show what a flood looked like in Oklahoma. It was fast-paced and fascinating, but frustrating when breaking news meant all our work went out the window."
   Mr. Cable continued working as a commercial artist, illustrating book jackets, among other things, until 1995, when he decided to pursue fine art full time. "I never considered my art as a marketable style — it addresses no issues, it’s just pretty, comforting, calming. I never thought that had public appeal until I entered competitions and received awards. That gave me confidence, although it took a long time to call myself an artist — people put fine artists on a pedestal. Collectors of my art want to come to my studio and see where the work is created."
   He is happy to be pursuing his childhood dream, although he is not yet sure how he will pay college tuition for his three daughters.
   Mr. Cable painted "The Christmas Sled" in front of the Hopewell train station last winter, when it was decorated with wreaths and lights. "It wasn’t overdone, and I liked the late-afternoon light." The painting, with the industrial red brick mansard-roofed station at dusk taking center stage, is illuminated by two figures in the foreground, a warmly dressed parent figure pulling a bundled-up child in a sled. Although their clothing is what a mother and child in Hopewell might wear today, the innocence and simplicity of the scene evokes an earlier time, when lives in suburbia were safe, or at least seemed to be, as long as Daddy came home on that train.
   "I’m adding figures to my work lately, rather than just the static images of buildings," says Mr. Cable. "The figures add a different dimension, a warmth and liveliness."
On Track oil paintings by Jerry Cable will be on view at the Hopewell Train Station, Railroad Place, Hopewell, through Nov. 4. Sales from the exhibit will benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The exhibit will continue at the Rhinehart-Fischer Gallery, 46 West Lafayette St., Trenton, through Nov. 24. For information, call (908) 788-8673.