I have come to love what a painting with a big blue sky does to a room. The work can open up the space like an additional window, giving it more air and light. I noticed this over the years when walking in museums and galleries. As an example, the Moran’s, Bierstadt’s and Cole’s I gazed at would lift and lighten the gallery, while a room with strong portraits like a Rembrandt can feel more crowded almost like having an extra person in the room.
In my interior design work I have always encouraged my clients to acquire good art. Since many New York apartments have a living room with two long walls leading to a shorter window wall on the exterior, it is nice to break up one of those the long walls with a good chunk of sky. This can balance the window and visually widen the space, almost like making it a corner room.
I started out making big blue-sky paintings with a bit of water at the bottom like a base line. After a few years, I took some of my paintings to a local gallerist. She said NOT MORE WATER PAINTINGS! At around the same time I went to the Yale Museum and saw the wall of sky studies painted by Constable. I knew I was on the right path. I also looked into how the sky portion of larger more complex paintings could be a composition on its own. Both the Met. and Yale have a nice selection of Turners on hand for my viewing. At the Met I also enjoy the romantic Hudson River School paintings. While there I might take a photo of just the portion of a painting of interest, I can isolate that portion and see how that looks on its own.
The Turner movie about his life and art shows him making more abstract paintings in his later work. Last year, I went to a Thomas Cole show at the Metropolitan Museum. The show had a few large epic Turners mixed in. Again, I was most interested in chunks of sky and how those parts worked independently. Turner’s last paintings had fewer recognizable parts.
I do not paint from a specific image, I jumble it all together in my mind to create a work. My newer paintings shown here fall into a few groups. Some have simple large blue skies, these are painted more like watercolors with only one chance to get it right. Another group shows clouds, active, puffy, ponderous, wispy. Some of the other works include cross sections of sky, a slice through the vapors, with hints of things going on behind. I hope you enjoy them.
The paintings are acrylic on canvas or board. They range in size from one foot square to four feet by five feet.
I also post a daily photograph to my Photo Blog RMLhamptons.com, each month now has a theme. May was wood walkways and docks.
First developed for ARF, I donated the design of Eddie the large steel dog in The Southampton Dog Park.
I can be reach at RMLHamptons@gmail.com
Robert M Lohman Biography:
1950s and 60s
Towson, Maryland outside Baltimore, Saturday class Maryland Institute of Art
1960s and 70s
Bethesda, Maryland outside Washington, Saturday class Corcoran Gallery
1970s
Providence, Rhode Island, RISD Interior Architecture
1970s and 80s
New York, New York, Design Consulting
1980s to Today
Southampton, New York, Design Consulting, Art and Sales Work
Robert M Lohman Art 