Castle, Bunker Hill

                                                  Castle, Bunker Hill by Dick Burg
 

While perusing pictures of old Bunker Hill, Los Angeles on the internet I came across an artist by the name Ben Abril and a painting titled Bunker Hill Castle. I couldn’t help remembering my sister Pat relaying a story about a guy my dad painted with around Bunker Hill and vicinity and that this guy ended up having his Bunker Hill paintings in a museum in Los Angeles.  Ben Abril and my dad have a familiar style and a love of architectural structures. That immediately is what caught my eye and encouraged me look up Ben’s background. Ben Abril (1923 –1995) was born in LA, a member of the San Gabriel Art Club, has paintings at Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. The name and info added up and the name was starting to feel even more familiar. I remembered seeing, while sorting out the box of ribbons I received from Shirley Kelly Burg, that Ben Abril was one of the judges notated on a First Place ribbons. They were contemporaries:

First Award, San Gabriel Fine Arts Association, Art Show
Won By: Dick Burg
Date: Sept. 2, 3 &4, 1978
Class: Genre
Event: Fiesta Show
Judge: Ben Abril, Joyce Piler
Name: Santa Monica Pier

                                                 Bunker Hill Castle by Ben Abril

The house that Ben Abril Painted in Bunker Hill Castle is the same house but different perspective painted by Dick that hung in Shirley’s room at Aspen Ridge Retirement Community, Bend, Oregon.

In color comparison of the house, Dick’s in pinkish mauve viewed straight on – Ben’s, bleached blue green grays viewed slightly right of center, exposing the sides.

The Castle was a in the Queen Ann style constructed in the 1880’s and stood at 325 South Bunker Hill Avenue. After escaping demolition, both The Castle and Salt Box were relocate to Heritage Square only to be burned to the ground by vandals in 1969.  

#40 Castle (Bunker Hill) 9x12, framed, acrylic, signed by Dick Burg 
Courtesy of Shirley Kelly Burg estate