|
|
Article: The art of history; Throwback painter captures the people, the moments and more.(NEWS)
- Article from:
- Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
- Article date:
- May 18, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Star Tribune Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
As a painter, Mark Balma lives and works not so much on a wooded hill in Minnetonka as near the intersection of art and history.
In an improbable turn, the 40-year-old eccentric has set aside his interest in fresco (painting on damp plaster) to revive another long dormant form: big oil paintings of historic people doing historic things.
We're not talking about Moses parting the Red Sea or Attila at the gates of Constantinople. We're talking recent.
Balma is in the midst of painting Margaret Thatcher with Ronald Reagan on the south portico of the White House, a pose that captures a moment in the early 1980s when a tide of conservatism washed over ...