Above and Beneath Painting

Robert Hartshorn is a fourth generation artist who, after five decades of painting, found his facination with abstract land and waterscapes. An avid proponent of chiaroscuro, Robert explores the evocative beauty of light playing over earth, sea and air. His use of austere form and negative space has evoked narrative such as “academic with a modernist twist” and “minimalist”, but the artist hopes that people view his work as a simple expression of beauty without the need for further interpretation. The subect he paints informs the medium he employs, and he is well versed in oil, acrylic, watercolor and pastel.. Extensive “old-masters” glazing ad layering is his method. His palette is extremely spare but complete enough to explore endless nuances of colors and values. “I look for subjects which can tell their story in the subtle expressions of contour and atmosphere…an inner emotion revealed in an outer form.