|Julie Fralich|
New Gloucester has a long history of attracting artisans, crafts people, painters, woodworkers, and other creative entrepreneurs to this small, unassuming rural town. Tucked between the mountains of western Maine and the more populous cities of Cumberland and Androscoggin county, New Gloucester is just enough off the beaten path to have avoided the development that has come to many neighboring towns and retained the feel and character of a small village. For many, this provides just the right environment for a work/life of creative expression and access to a slower rural way of life.
Since the 19th century, the Shakers of Sabbathday Lake have invented and made simple yet practical chairs, benches, tools and other household items and furniture. The Shaker style is nationally and internationally known and replicated by many.
More recently, in the early 1970s, Thomas Moser set up shop in the old Grange Hall in the Lower Village and started what became one of the most well-known furniture making companies in the country, if not the world. Many of the townspeople who worked in the early days for Thomas Moser still live in town and/or became furniture and cabinet makers in their own right.
Over the last 30 plus years, other creative folk have quietly and unobtrusively moved to town and set up shop. As a result, today, hidden in the barns, attics and out buildings of many New Gloucester homes are a variety of talented artists and crafts people; many of whom are better known by their peers or followers in their particular niche craft or art and not so well known by local residents.
One such hidden treasure is Tony Castro. Tony is an unassuming, easy going, neighborly kind of guy who has been masterfully painting and restoring decorative walls and ceilings in historic buildings, churches and private homes in Maine for over 25 years. Tony and his wife Jacinda Cotton-Castro moved to New Gloucester in 1999, raised their family here and have become part of the fabric of the community. Over the years, Tony has also employed a number of family members and friends, many of whom also live in New Gloucester.
Tony never set out to be a painter and in fact his artist dad encouraged him to follow any path but that. But he grew up in an environment where neighbors were always helping neighbors with building projects and where he found he loved figuring out how things worked and became proficient in the basics of electricity, plumbing and all things mechanical. In college, he applied his inquisitive nature and aptitude to an engineering degree but soon thereafter realized that those were not the jobs for him.
In the 70s Tony, like many others of the time, chose an alternative life style and career path. After several years of homesteading in Phillips, Maine he moved to the Farmington area and joined a community of house painting friends committed to quality craftsmanship and an independent, entrepreneurial work style. Through a combination of luck and word of mouth reputation, after eight years of residential and commercial interior and exterior painting, Tony found himself in demand as one of the only such historic restoration painters in the state.
A job that led to restoration work was the living quarters of John McKernan in the Blaine House. Before long, word got out and he was expanding his repertoire to include cleaning, repairing and replicating the decorative patterns on the walls and ceilings in the hidden corners of churches and historic buildings of small Maine towns as well as more famous theaters, colleges and private homes in the state.
With the stamp of approval and a steady stream of referrals from Earl Shettleworth, Tony never needed to advertise over the years. In many instances, the scope and complexity of a renovation caused the price proposals from “out-of-state professionals” to be well beyond the reach of small local churches and theaters. Often times, people would reflect that “if Tony doesn’t do it, it won’t get done.” With his usual resourcefulness and engineering brain, Tony perfected methods for cleaning and removing paint from large surfaces.
With no formal training but a natural intuition for color, an understanding of light, a knowledge of all things mechanical, and a love of detail oriented work, Tony taught himself the techniques of removing layers of overpaint, matching historic colors, finding just the right sheen, learning the “trick of the eye”, tromp l’oeil technique, and the painstaking process of applying gold leaf applique. Along the way, he added mural painting to his extensive resume, often painting scenes in private homes, some in the tradition of early travelling painters in Maine.
Among some of his notable projects are the interiors of Cumston Hall (home to the Theater at Monmouth), Bowdoin Chapel, Joshua Chamberlain’s House, The Norlands Living History Center, Biddeford City Theater, First Parish Church of Yarmouth, the First Congregational-Christian Church of New Gloucester, and the Lithgow Library in Augusta.
Also of note are the murals at the Narrow Gauge Cinema in Farmington and Mount St. Joseph Nursing Home in Fairfield. Tony also painted the Maine State Seal on canvas and installed it in the entry to the State House in Augusta.
Tony recently semi-retired and has graciously started to share his extensive portfolio and timeline of work online. The following are just a few of the magnificent and technically superior works of art that Tony has produced over the years. For a full and more comprehensive view of his work, go to Tony Castro Company Facebook page or Tony Castro Web page
One of Tony’s favorite styles of painting is trompe l’oeil. According to Tony’s website, “these trick of the eye decorations have long been used in Europe and found popularity in the United States during the Victorian era. This style of decorative painting creates the illusion of molding and other architectural elements. The wall is flat and the lines create the illusion of depth and shadow.” As the notes accompanying his paintings explain, “the trompe l’oeil (trick of the eye) is such a simple and yet precise art when applied to moldings. A bunch of lines of various widths and colors, some with sharp edges and some blended into their neighbors all to emulate shadow and shape.”
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Here are photos of Tony’s major renovation project at Bowdoin Chapel.
Photo: Tony Castro
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This shows Tony using a perforated ‘pounce’ pattern to layout the decoration on the new plastered area. This was the technique used for repeating motifs on these types of decorations. A little bit of pigment stippled or ‘pounced’ through the perforations gave a dotted line to follow with the decorative colors
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Here Tony faux paints wood and tromp l’oeil molding on a door.
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Here are decorative Dutch tiles using the tromp l’oeil technique.
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The following are examples of some of Tony’s murals.
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To truly enjoy and fully appreciate all of Tony’s work, make yourself a cup of tea, settle into a comfortable chair, and check out his online photos for a truly memorable review of his extraordinary portfolio of work. Thank you, Tony, for your tremendous contributions to Maine’s history and tradition of decorative and restorative painting.
