SPRINGFIELD – Steve Gale’s intricate pencil drawings depict places that have deep resonances in both history and popular culture.

On exhibit at the Bing Arts center now through Jan. 19, 2019 are detailed looks of Urquhart Castle on the shores of Loch ness in Scotland, the underground depths of the Paris Opera House, the Burg Frankenstein castle in Muhltal, Germany, a detail of the workshop of the man who inspired “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” and several Romanian locations of Vlad Tepes, the man who inspired “Dracula,” among others.

The drawings of these ancient building are a result of Gale’s many trips to Europe, which helped rekindled his love of drawing. The Sixteen Acres native is a professional massage therapist now living in New Jersey.

He explained to Reminder Publishing at the opening of the exhibit he had left art for 20 years and decided while traveling through Europe he should revisit it.

He started sketching the castles and ruins he was visiting. As he was sketching these buildings he started seeing the connection many of them had to classic tales of horror.

“Many of them [the stories] have a nugget of truth,” he said with a smile. “Some have a whole big bag of nuggets of truth.”

While in Whitby, United Kingdom, Gale found the Whitby Abbey remains, which inspired Bram Stoker who write ‘Dracula.” He even found a commemorative bench across the harbor from the abbey where Stoker was sitting when he was inspired with the idea for his novel.

Gale’s look at the lower regions of the famed Paris Opera House is one of the few drawings that were not from a personal visit. He tried to receive permission from authorities to visit the part of the opera house made famous by Gaston Leroux’s “Phantom of the Opera,” but was told only the fire and rescue first responders had access to that area.

Gale wrote on his website, www.stones-exhibit.com, “I’m not drawn to castles that serve as residence. A castle that a Duke would live in is a lot less fun than one where a vampire might hole up. Instead of the grand nature of intact castles I greatly prefer ruins. Fortresses constructed of great stones drawn from the Earth that now, centuries later, are returning to the Earth. The best for me are an unusual blend of human construct and cave, the tight hard edges giving way to a more rounded, worn condition. And across the Atlantic these are everywhere. Some have been cleaned up just enough to draw in visitors and are lots of fun to tour. But the biggest prizes are what I think of as ‘wild’ castle ruins. Something on the outskirts of a village, in the middle of a pasture or buried deep in the woods. These are harder to find and to get to, but oh boy are they fun to explore. Sometimes you’ll find one like this with dark rooms, hallways and intact staircases. That’s a party.”

As Gale’s collection of pencil drawings of these historic buildings grew he recognized how many are linked to novels and to classic films. He started a separate series of mostly black and while watercolors of images primarily from the Universal horror films of the 1930 and ‘40s.

These paintings are the second half of the exhibit at the Bing. Gale has painted Boris Karloff in the role that made him famous as the Frankenstein Monster, and Bela Lugosi as Dracula. Among others are Fredric March in his Academy Award winning performance at Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a scene from “King Kong,” the Gill Man from “The Creature from the Black Lagoon,” Lon Chaney, Jr. as the Wolfman and Lon Chaney Sr. as the Phantom of the Opera.

“I loved the kind of gentler monster from the 20th Century, Gale said.

He added that art reflects society and that “horror movies followed that template.”

He added,  “They portrayed what they [audiences] feared.”

Gale is publishing prints of some of his drawings and will be among the artist featured at this year’s Bing Comic Con at Ashbury Hall at Trinity Methodist Church on Sumner Avenue on Oct. 27.