A Delicate Balance

Phillip Singer went from creating book covers to his own original oils and giclee prints with a touch of surrealism.

By: Mary Jasch

   Phillip Singer, oil painter and surreal artist with a twist.
   Mr. Singer likes series of things, and constancy and flow in a volatile business. A man of risk, as any working artist is, he has watched with his business eye and learned to analyze, interpret and change.
   From the day he left the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan he leapt into action, painting book covers for publishers, painting other people’s ideas and dreams. He was ready to create and paint, but was in for a surprise.
   "People hired me from the neck down to render up their ideas," Mr. Singer says. "Doing book covers, strange things popped into my head." But the publishing world was not ready for the art of Phillip Singer.

   Fifteen years later, the New Britain resident still does covers, but he’s found his place on canvas with the discovery that comes with influence, contemplation and experimentation. Animals in landscapes dredge up wonder and emotion, like a grand eagle in a desolate place and a pair of sardonic gators on a golf course. His women are beautiful representations of the seasons.
   Mr. Singer’s original oils and giclee prints are on view at the Bucks County Visitor Center in Bensalem through April 21.
   Growing up, Mr. Singer drew by copying paintings from books, but his quest for perfectionism frustrated and discouraged him. "Every once in a while I would draw something and render the heck out of it," he says.
   He scoured his parents’ art books, imagination on fire — Rockwell, Dalí, et al. "I couldn’t understand how they were paintings," Mr. Singer says. "I think it’s what added to my frustration. I didn’t have any art instruction. Whatever I did paled to that." He studied business administration at Bucks County Community College, got bored and changed his major to art after his mother suggested it.
   "I found what I wanted to do," Mr. Singer says. "This major of business administration — I thought, ‘What does this mean? What will I do when I graduate?’ That’s when I got serious. I struggled, really worked hard and dedicated myself to something for the first time."
   He earned an associate’s degree in fine art, then went to New York for school and work. "And now I think like a business man," he says.
   During his first eight years of striking out into the art world all on his own, he clothed novels in illustrious art. Those pieces bear the intriguing name of the books’ titles: "The Cheshire Cat," "While Other People Sleep" and a Hopper-like painting of a red car parked outside an all-night bar, "The Broken Promised Land."
   He took ideas for the paintings straight from the pages of the novels. "Sometimes deadlines were so tight and they’d send me a title or a book," he says. "Some were more surreal ideas but they got shut down. I’d look for scenes from the book — for eerie, mysterious kinds of scenes."
   But markets change as do suppliers and soon Singer saw the writing on the wall. "I saw that my days were numbered," he says. "It took too long to put the paintings on the market and digital moved in with stock illustration and stock photography, so it’s rare for a publisher to say, ‘Let’s hire a painter.’ They don’t conceive of illustration the way they used to."
   He began selling at art festivals part-time to supplement the illustration, but now does just three or four book covers a year to supplement the shows.
   Meanwhile, his collection grew. He painted animals. He painted a series of four women who represent the seasons. "Hibernation" is a frozen scene of a woman in white sleeping on a rock bed with the rest of winter’s nature. One feels the cold beauty of nature in winter and the peace that sleep brings.
   "All the paintings of women I did on my own," he says. "I did the painting of spring and when I thought of winter I had the idea of a woman lying in the snow. The women were a real struggle to get the drawing right. ‘Hibernation’ was the one painting of all the women I just left alone. It was a very easy painting to do."
   Singer brought his four season women to the shows. People admired but did not buy. This called for new strategy. He studied the clientele and what they bought at other booths. "So I thought I’d just come up with an idea of what people can hang in their kitchens," Mr. Singer says. He thought of painting fruit.
   Mr. Singer had lots of work hanging. He waited. He watched. He took a critical look around his booth, almost practicing the art of separating soul from body to view his work as from strange eyes. "A lot of people came into my booth and admired my work, and would go next door and spend more money. I would look at who’s going into that booth — really look. I almost gave up."
   Then, almost three years later, in State College, Mr. Singer had a big show.
   "Guys in leather came in with tattoos and piercings and said to me, ‘That’s really cool,’ and then a little old lady would come in and say, ‘I collect everything with rabbits on it.’ I’ll have a little line in front of my booth and I’ll observe them and think what an interesting cross-section of people. I thought, ‘Wow! It’s going to work!’ People bought three and four prints. That gave me the inspiration — that there was an audience for my work."
   At last Mr. Singer found the delicate balance between being an artist and business man to be able to survive as an artist. He found people liked small prints in a series — his most popular are the animal and fruit paintings with a touch of surrealism. This is not selling out — this is marketing creativity and creative thought. "From 10 feet away they came and said, ‘Wow!’"
   Mr. Singer still goes to New York and paints from life between the shows and three or four new paintings a year — just the right amount for the market. The rest are limited-edition giclee prints.
   "I’m at a very odd spot," he says. "I’m kind of on a little bit of a rat’s wheel. The shows are very hard work."
Works by Phillip Singer are on view at the Bucks County Visitor Center, 3207 Street Road, Bensalem, through April 21. Hours: Daily 9 a.m.-5 p.m. For information, call (215) 639-0300. On the Web: www.experiencebuckscounty.com