Mark Schebell’s paintings are like beautiful nightmares. Jacob Aldridge’s are quiet, clean still lifes. Schebell’s slathers canvasses in circus-bright acrylics; Aldridge applies restrained colors with care. Schebell works in bursts; Aldridge keeps a steady schedule. Yet the men respect one another as peers – good thing, because they share a small studio.

The artists’ differences are explained in part by their similarities: they’re in their mid-30s, both in their third year at UHART’s art school, and both are veterans. Schebell spent four years as a tank crewman, including a deployment in Bahrain; Aldridge was an engineer on a Navy submarine, a more tranquil space. 

Schebell isn’t specific about his military stint; he only mentions “negative things” that built up. “My dreams inspire me to create an unsettling composition,” he admits clear-eyed about his work’s unsettling nature. Schebell, who describes himself as a method painter, tempers the dark with vague, fluid edges and playful primary colors inspired by Spanish painters of the mid-20th-century. But the darkness remains – and that is part of why he paints. 

“The work is my escape from emotional downfall,” he said. “If I’m creating, it’s like a tenfold stack of perseverance – I get through it, all my hardship. I’m a different person almost.” 

Aldridge approaches art differently. 

It’s therapeutic more through the technique than the content – appropriate for an engineer whose father was also in the Navy. Discipline is in Aldridge’s bones and blood and on his canvas. He tests himself to make the most out of the smallest gestures. “Realistically, I want to be a skilled technician. I wanna be able to reproduce masters’ works and make my own.” He cites the short-lived Tonalist movement as inspiration. Like them, Aldridge minimal color for maximum impact.

Three examples of Jacob Aldridge’s subtle yet powerful use of color.

It is, as in the military, about getting back to basics: “If you stick to the authenticity of your art and really home in the basics, it’s a lot easier.” 

What’s next? More school and more canvasses. And both are optimistic. Schebell said, “To see where I’ve gone the past two years gives me hope I can make it as an artist.” 

Art light or dark, these painters have bright futures. 

Follow Mark Schebell and Jacob Aldridge on Instagram (@mark_schebell and @jacobla_studio) to see how their careers flourish – and to buy art, of course.