The Himalayas, Pakistan 1975
(Gallery 1)
For the back story and other information about this painting and most of the paintings on this website click here. Locate the painting in the DailyPaintWorks gallery, then click on the upper part of the painting on that page. The back story for this painting is especially interesting.
Artist Statement
As a lifelong admirer of the Baroque painters, I paint realistically, emphasizing the contrasts between lights and darks, highlights, reflections, strong shadows, and usually dark backgrounds. My paintings are colorful, dramatic, and representational, though not photographic.
Over the years most of my work has been still life. I enjoy bringing often-over-looked, everyday items to life in new and unexpected ways. In fact, my art is really an attempt to find and reveal beauty in life’s ordinary things. Old kettles and crockery, candlesticks, or a modern, gleaming glass vase are good examples. In addition, I’m attempting to contribute to the revival of societal interest in still life art. Recently, I have done some landscapes, including the Himalayan scene above and Irish landscapes, as well as colorful sunsets and sunrises.
My work is well known, having been shown in various venues from the lower Hudson Valley to the Adirondack Mountains, with numerous exhibitions in New York’s Capital Region and in Vermont. My paintings are in collections throughout the United States and parts of Europe and Africa. I am currently represented by two galleries in the Republic of Ireland and one in Troy, New York, as well as a gallery in Monticello, Arkansas. All are by invitation from gallery owners. See more details about gallery representation on this page, upper right. (Modified from a statement prepared in conjunction with my juried entry into Oil Painters of America.)
The Artist
Retired from a career in higher education, Bob Blackmon lives and paints in Troy, New York. He has been painting since 1973, having studied under master artists Bob Tompkins (Madison, Mississippi) and the late Bill Zaner (Boerne, Texas). Blackmon’s still life style is influenced by the Baroque-style paintings of Tompkins, whose work is greatly influenced by that of the French artist, Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin.
Prior to his retirement in 2005, Blackmon held academic administrative positions at the University of Arkansas, the State University of New York, and Louisiana State University (where he received his PhD many years ago). In 1975, while a research scientist with the USDA Forest Service, he was a Scholar in Residence at the Pakistan Forest Institute in Peshawar, Pakistan. Since their retirement Bob and his wife, Mary Beth, have become serious students of Irish history and culture and have made several trips to the Republic of Ireland, their emotional home.
Bob Blackmon is a member of the Southern Vermont Arts Center, Colonie Art League, the Albany Artists Group, Saratoga Arts, the DeSoto Arts Council (in Louisiana, the state of his birth) and is one of three founding directors of the East Bank Art Alliance. He and Mary Beth are Sustaining Members of the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Blackmon's work is in two galleries in Ireland-- Admore Gallery, Ardmore, County Waterford and Fadó Gallery, Dingle, County Kerry.
Blackmon has exhibited his work at juried, non-juried, solo and group shows at Louisiana State University, in Gonzales, Louisiana, in Leland, Mississippi and Schenectady, Albany, Saratoga Springs, Colonie, Averill Park, East Greenbush, Port Ewen, Greenwich, and Troy, New York and Manchester, Vermont. Venues have included the Sand Lake Center for the Arts, the Arts Center of the Capital Region, the Duck Pond Gallery, the Wine Bar and Bistro on Lark, the East Greenbush Community Library, the Villagers Stockade Show, Art in the Garden, the Pruyn House, the William K. Sandford Library, the Guilderland Library, the Art de Cure Galleries, Colonie Art League shows, and the Southern Vermont Arts Center.
When not painting, traveling to Ireland, being staff for two rowdy cats, Blackmon spends a fair amount of time as a human rights activist, something he has done intermittently since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 70s. He is one of the founding board members of the Justice Center of Rennselaer County New York, a social justice activist group. He currently serves a president of the Justice Center, an organization dedicated to “making good trouble,” particularly with regard to police reform in America.
The Art
Unless otherwise noted to be acrylic, Blackmon's paintings are original oils on canvas. Paintings in private collections are, of course, no longer available; the others are for sale. All works are nicely framed or on gallery wrapped canvas, wired, and ready for hanging. To reach the artist, use the Contact page.
The artist reserves the right to reproduce his works and to market museum-quality prints. Reproductions of some of Blackmon’s paintings are available as signed and numbered limited edition, museum-quality giclée prints.
Painting Classes
Bob Blackmon does a limited amount of teaching in the private lesson environment. Students spend several hours per day for a few mostly consecutive days studying and painting with the artist. At the end of the sessions the student takes a completed painting. Lessons are for adults only. No painting experience is necessary. Supplies are provided. See Gallery 6 for a few images of student paintings. To learn more about these private lessons, contact the artist at still.life.guy@gmail.com or 518.526.2516.
The Ireland Connection
The "Ireland Collection" (Gallery 3) is a separate gallery of paintings inspired by Irish subjects, such as landscapes, monuments, and pottery. Also, an Irish forest scene (photograph) is used for this site’s banner. And here is why: The forest shown is on the grounds of the Monastic community of Glendalough, one of the most peaceful and beautiful places on earth.
For several years Blackmon has had works on exhibit at the Ardmore Gallery in Ardmore, County Waterford, in Ireland. Recently he was invited to exhibit in a second gallery in Ireland— Fadó Gallery, Dingle, Coounty Kerry. He also has paintings in the permanent collections of several Bed and Breakfasts in the Republic of Ireland: Bracken B & B, Laragh, near Glendalough, County Wicklow; Newtown Farm Country House, Grange, near Ardmore, County Waterford; Four Winds Lodge, Galway, County Galway; and Windermere House, Castlebar, County Mayo.
With sales from Ardmore Gallery in Ireland, and a sale directly to a collector in nearby Youghal, County Cork, Blackmon paintings are now in private collections in continental Europe, Africa, the Republic of Ireland and throughout the United States.
Site Dedication
This site is dedicated to the loving memory of the magnificent and wonderful cat, Clare Blackmon (2007-2016) and Samuel Windermere Blackmon (1991-2006), a handsome English Cocker. Both were, and still are, intergral members of the Blackmon family and contributed enormously to the artist’s mental and emotional well being. Thus, they assisted and inspired the artist as he created many of the paintings on this website. A beautiful watercolor portrait of Sam (below) was done by the late Baton Rouge artist, Joe Lackie.
Clare Blackmon
The Artist and Sam (2005)
Sam
Watercolor by the late Joe Lackie
Declan (left) and Patrick, our current pets
Oil by Irina Beskina
Special Tribute
The artist pays special tribute to his sister, Ima Jeane Blackmon Cash (1929-1995), who was a gifted painter, and to his mother, Myrtie Wiggins Blackmon (1907-1993), who, inspired by her daughter and perhaps her son, created one painting in her lifetime. Likewise, the artist’s dear aunt, Gracie Smith (1921-2011) created one painting.
Ima Jeane Blackmon Cash
by
Judy Hall
Logansport, Louisiana
Now have yourself a cup of Irish tea, or an Irish whiskey (always in moderation!!), scroll back to the top, click on the various galleries and other pages, and enjoy the “beauty of life’s ordinary things,” as well as sunsets, sunrises, and other landscapes.