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Rubin's Art Makes One Ask 
'What Will Happen Next?'
By Mary Beth Martin
Staff Writer, The Fauquier
Citizen
(Photo by Greg Huddleston
courtesy of The Piedmont Virginian.)
Delaplane artist Alan Rubin took up a brush 10 years ago and discovered a passion in painting.
A self-taught artist, Alan Rubin sets his own boundaries, painting scenes that look like stills from movies playing in his imagination. He refuses to explain his work and challenges viewers to discover their own interpretations.
Until recently the owner of the Biograph Theatre in Washington for 30 years, Mr. Rubin has a long connection with the cinema from which he obviously draws in composing his artwork.
His paintings share some striking similarities with films by his favorite director, Federico Fellini, whose movies fuse autobiography with fantasy. Recurring symbols in the Italian filmmaker's work include the seashore, circuses, music halls, bleak roads and deserted town squares.
Although people dominate Mr. Rubin's work, animals appear frequently with their owners. Water, circus and zoo animals, flowers and fields also play significant roles. Another more recent theme in the artist's extensive portfolio involves dream-like scenes suspended in the clouds.
Delaplane resident Peter Schwartz, who recently commissioned a portrait of his children, says, "Alan is as much a storyteller as an artist. Every one of his paintings tells a short story about the character or characters. When I look at any of his paintings, I feel like I'm reading a colorful short story."
Mr. Rubin's commissions resemble big-budget productions, but on his own, he tends toward more enigmatic images.
He began painting during a summer visit to Europe 10 years ago. He and his wife, Susan, stopped to visit William Woodward, a Fauquier County painter who spends his summers in the French province of Brittany. What started as a day of sketching extended into a week and became a passion, then a new career.
"One of the advantages of being self-taught is that I'm so far removed from being a victim of style," Mr. Rubin claims. "I promised myself from early on that I would do this for enjoyment. I just love the whole process beginning with stretching the canvas."
With a geology degree from George Washington University, he began his art education by taking classes from Warrenton photographer Sunny Reynolds and mentoring by Mr. Woodward and Middleburg artists Toni and Mecia Brohead.
Since he lost the theatre lease in 1996, the Delaplane artist has worked in his studio for four to five hours, six days a week. "I never thought I would be a working artist," he confesses. "I never enjoyed anything more. I can't wait to get at it every day."
"I often try to evoke nostalgia, by painting something out of this time, but try to avoid being sentimental," he explains. Like Mr. Fellini, whose films affirm life, Mr. Rubin's paintings do as well. The theater-owner-turned-artist admits, "I like to capture a moment in life," and many of his paintings look like time standing still.
A recent one-man show at Humblestone Inn chronicled his refinement in technical skill and more sophisticated use of paint and color, says inn owner, Jenifer Trovato. "His work is very cinematic and causes people to stop and ask, 'What will happen next?'"
Mr. Rubin's work qualifies as American realism, but in the art world, he has carved out his own niche. He will exhibit his work at the upcoming "Art at the Mill" show in Millwood from April 28 to May 13 and at The Plains arts festival from May 18 to 20.
