Artists, musicians brush up on performance

Paint & Play isn’t going to play out like “The Chamber Group,” the Alan Bull painting pictured above, seeing how we’re in the middle of a new Ice Age and everything. But the piece, which is hopeful and all but screams “warm summer breeze, warm summer breeze,” certainly conveys what the thing is all about — music and painting. The event, let’s call it a paint-slam,  will be the first local show for Lux, the Port-based, sax-centered funk band since the release of its debut album, “The Left One Alone.” While the quartet plays, Bull and other artists will be doing their thing — recalling 1990s performances-slash-collaborations  of Uz jsme doma with resident artist Martin Velisek. Art-making will be encouraged for anyone who would like to pick up a paintbrush. Some materials will be provided. Or you can bring your own sketchpad. Music-related art and other works by Bull and photographs by Sara Elizabeth Connor will be on display and for sale.  Paint & Play will run from 4 to 8 p.m. Feb. 12 at Bull’s studio. No, not the guerilla gallery. That’s gone. The studio is located at 18 Graf Road / Unit 18 (2nd Floor) at the Newburyport Industrial Park.  This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.  The exhibition and sale will continue from 1 to 5  p.m. Feb. 13. For more info, call 978-417-9778.

Alan Bull’s sort-of guerrilla gallery

Finding Alan Bull in a gallery isn't all that unusual. On the walls, anyhow. The Port painter always has something going on somewhere. But finding him behind the counter, that's something else. And finding him behind the counter of his own gallery, well, that's just .... whaaaa? Yeah, that's right. Bull, perhaps best known for his emotionally charged series on old trucks, has his own gallery, something that seems to have popped up overnight. Or maybe it's some sort of guerilla installation: Here today, gone tomorrow? Yeah, sounds crazy, but, actually, it's not that far off.  The artist will be ensconced in a comfy little Inn Street storefront, at the former Stitch in Time, between the Inn Street Barbershop and the Purple Onion, through the end of the month and maybe, but not definitely, through January. And the name of the place? 48 Inn Street Gallery.  Yeah, doesn’t quite grab you by the lapels, but certainly functional.  At least you know where the place is. And the hours? Weekends approach “regular” hours, weekdays not so much. It’s all rather improvisational. The guy has to paint — and teach — after all. Can’t be standing around the store all day.

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Alan Bull: Little wheels keep on turning

Ever wonder how Alan Bull got started with that edgy, somewhat nostalgic and most definitely, emotionally charged truck series that, like it or not, more than anything, has come to define him over the past decade, despite the Port painter's diverse portfolio? The answer is obvious ... if you have a background in automotive forensic psychology: The big truck thing grew out of his childhood obsession with much smaller vehicles — those little Matchbox cars, to be precise. And, since we’re being so precise, we should make it clear for those of you with fuzzy memories that we are not talking about the much sexier Hot Wheels, which took the air out of the practical-but-kinda-frumpy Matchbox collection back during the Summer of Love when Mattel introduced its series of sports cars instead of, er, the cement and dump trucks favored by its English rival.They may have been stupid little boy toys, but, for many of a certain age, they are soaked in nostalgia, like the truck series — and, the artist says, "definitely the source of my fascination with the trucks. They started the whole thing rolling."

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