At 45 years old and after 20 years in the fashion industry, Saul Lyons was burned out. A friend, noticing his rut, suggested a creative outlet: painting.
Lyons, the kind of guy who “couldn’t even draw a stick figure,” was unsure, but decided to test the waters. He bought a paint-by-number set.
While working alongside his then-fiancé, now-husband, at their kitchen table, Lyons finished his set first and with paint to spare. He used his extra supplies to free-paint a few flowers that he figured he’d share with his social network.
“I posted it on Facebook and everyone was like, ‘OMG! I love that!’” said Lyons. “So, I decided that I would start painting and posting everything that I painted to Facebook to see if I could progress, and I did.”
That was three years ago. Now 48, Lyons
has turned his art into a full-time career as a painter, a pencil artist and, as of April, the owner of a gay art gallery in New Hope: Saul Lyons Studio and Gallery.
The facility, a single 225-square-foot room, is a multipurpose space that triples as Lyons’ studio, his permanent exhibition and a single-walled rotating gallery dedicated to monthly shows by visiting artists.
Lyons said his decision to create a gallery
space exclusively for gay artists was a response to what he saw as the dissolution of New Hope’s LGBT community.
“New Hope used to be this really gay community where a lot of people would leave wherever they felt uncomfortable and come here. It was like their refuge. Over time, it’s become this wonderful border town, with a lot of attractions and a variety of people, but it’s a lot less gay. I wanted to be a part of what keeps it gay.”
Since its launch, the gallery has featured two visiting artists, both New Yorkers, for month-long exhibitions. Lyons intends to host four more shows before the New Hope tourism season wraps up after Christmas.
Tom Muscatello, a New Jersey-based self-taught watercolor and ink portraitist, is slotted for the next artist spot. Lyons said Muscatello’s expressionistic views of the male form complement his own art through contrast.
“I like having artwork by people who are doing things that are really imaginative and different and kind of bounce off of what I do.”
Lyons’ art, a range of graphite drawings and oil and acrylic paintings of men, some of them nude, are what he calls “images of affection” — scenes of men embraced, entangled or just being — that he hopes will challenge any preconceptions about gayness his visitors may bring through the door.
“People stumble into my gallery and they see me and they see these [images of] guys kissing, not particularly sexy guys kissing, just middle-aged guys kissing. I want them to realize they’re just regular people and I’m also just a really regular person,” Lyons said.
He added that he hopes his visitors leave with a realistic perspective on gayness, separate from “how gay people are being looked at in the current political climate.”
“I just want to be another way people can experience the normalcy of gayness; not even the normalcy — just gayness as unthreatening, kind, and loving.”
Saul Lyons Studio and Gallery, 39 W. Bridge St., New Hope, is open from noon-5 p.m. Friday-Sunday or by appointment at [email protected]. The reception for Tom Muscatello’s show, running June 29-July 15, will be held 5-8 p.m. June 30.