Would love to hear your opinion of AI art...especially "pieces" that have sold in large fine art markets. I had fun listening to your rant! Made it to the end :) - Painter in Brooklyn

How Joseph Beuys said: Every person is an artist! He said a lot of true things about art. I think successful art is a kind of provocation. Art and craft is not same, so often the imperfect is perfect. Robert I love your photos, they are telling stories. For me this is art, they are not taken with the newest and best camera and just taken from the streets. Art has to be honest, no copy, no fake, just unique, so you can recognize the artist.

Art is the idealization of the real world according to human standards of beauty and perfection. With her art, the artist is saying, "This is how life can be and ought to be."

like zorn, sorolla, sargent and many other painters, I enjoy the abstract qualities of paint. In fact, I can say that all the great art has the quality of abstraction included as part of the painting. that is to say, it's all abstract. When you see a Chuck Close in a gallery from a distance it looks realistic and as you get closer it gains abstraction and slaps you in the face with fact. Good art is a statement and has the potential for education. Andrew Wyeth painted incredible abstract paintings and still grabbed viewers' attention on all intellectual levels. the object, the effort, the thing viewed is a portal, threshold, mirror, and shadow. it meets the viewer halfway. artists are like figures of the past. Take Moses for example, his story is told by the many writers who have translated its meanings, speakers who put their twist or embellishment on the story, and people who own the book and never read it. the Moses book/piece/objet d'art is sitting there waiting for someone to engage with the stories. for the artists the act of painting is sublime. Duchamp may have been practicing some Buddhist meditation; the art is doing nothing. In the Bride Stripped Bare, he laid the armature on the floor and allowed time, dust bunnies, and chance to do the physical work while he did nothing. I wonder if he appreciated the act of painting; the smell, the mixing, the application, the sensitivity and the texture. for me personally, pasting nuts and bolts to a board will never satisfy me like applying paint to a canvas.

I always say the sheep all go this way and that way but the herder stays back on his own and watches them !!!

I love my Rolleiflex! It hasn't failed me over the years.

This is where we all want to be right? 90 year old artist, sharing his world his soul and heart through art pieces he creates. Awesome. Thank you.

Great rambling rant 👍

I love the Tom Thompson style you have going . I've tried it but but just not got it yet . Been watching you for a while and subscribed and liked most of your work . Thankyou !!!!!!!

Robert ; like you when younger I could never imagine affording this kind of equipment. I am retired fighting arthritis , but now I can afford a couple of good cameras. I have a Tessar 75mm 3.5 MX-EVS 1957 / E Model Distagon 55mm F4 Wide Rollei , they are both wonderful , the 75mm I have had 6 years , or 7 , the Wide a year almost. Love them both. ♥

Are you certain you're not Tom Thompson reincarnated? Wow.

For me art is meditation and a deep spiritual feeling. I was always drawing and painting since I was child. I had no plan what I was doing, but my painting was really good. Then I tried to paint with the rules for painting, I don't like my painting now, I have lost this feeling. Art is a talk with God. He takes your hand, voice or whatever and that's the magic that touches souls. (Sorry for my German English)

All the arts are transformative. You are different for having experienced a symphony, a painting, a sculpture, a performance, or dance. They go into your mind, your subconscious mind, your fund of experience and schema of your life. You may not notice it until something reminds you, or there's a similar experience, or even in your own creative efforts you are informed by everything you have nourished yourself with. You don't see the energy or the cells made via the food you eat, but you know it's happening, especially if you are in a situation where food is not available. Same with arts as nourishment of your soul. It's the connective tissue to the other 8 billion folks with whom you share this whirling rock speeding the the universe.

I've seen a trend of painting something that looks like a paint-by-number. (You young whippersnappers won't know what that is.)

“Resist trends and follow your heart”, words to live by.

Thanks for sharing your wisdom 🙏

You can only appreciate what you have AFTER you have suffered losses. There is no point in going around poorer people just to hopefully maybe gain a sense of gratitude for what you have been handed down.

What a beautiful inspiring message. Robert your future is going to be so bright specially with those gorgeous shades😊 keep God first in your life and everything else will fall in place❤

Excellent 😊

Prayers Brother, God bless You 🙌

anchorage?

Whoa! Wasn't expecting that. Here trying to find the wherewithal to continue to paint despite the paintings that have filled a walk-in closet and spilling out into floor stacks. Thanks, Robert.

Interesting use of fix. I'll try that. I'm interested to use other surfaces. I already shifted to cold-pressed illustration board with 2x gesso. I found I adore the 15x20 size proportions. Most people don't realize that artists have painted on just about anything they got their hands on. Emily Carr even thinned her paint with gasoline. There's no "right" way.

Through the wonders of google earth and street view, I’ve just “travelled” along a stretch of the highway from the east gate. It is beautiful, food for the soul as well as inspiration.

if only i could i would. thank you. i am but a simple man with simple means. your work, however, is very inspirational and instructive.

Very beautiful work and I love how you approach your process. Thanks for sharing ❤

our Mom and Dad had three children. grew up with an older sister and a younger brother. we were a catholic family. of all the wonderful things a parent teaches their children, my awesome parents gave us the gift of faith of belief. ,my mom would say God is everywhere. if we felt down in the morning my Dad would say cheer up things will be better tommorrow. when life gives us betrayal, and hurt if we are a believer, just knowing God is with us always, really helps. Good story. All the best.

That was brave Robert , I was a little afraid where you were going , but oh my we are quick to judge others and look past our own short comings

Love the reworking of unsold paintings , it inspires me to examine paintings I am working on , if you travel past Bancroft anytime let me know , I'll get lunch

Colors are radient. Thank you and all the best.

Love your philosophy, you explain your technique through those words. Thank you for sharing.

I once told a 20yo who was complaining about her cell phone bill about telephone party lines we had when I was a kid. She about fainted. "You had to SHARE one phone line with your neighbors?!" Perspective. I'm 5 years old than you. Remember reel tape players. We marveled at Super 8mm film recording. How color TV was a big deal and the family saved to get one. We imagined what it would be like "one day" to talk to someone on the 'phone" and seeing them at the same time. Now we have that, and whole libraries, movie houses, TVs, and world-wide comms in our pockets. But our act of painting stretches back into time uncounted and unrecalled but for the handprint, the brave horse and rider, the beast some guy hoped would feed his family, some god to be appeased.

"The Rabit Hole". Oh, my God. I fell down it 20 years ago and there is still no daylight in sight - I was working an IT gig in San Francisco and took a few pictures in my spare time. Then the fatal question came up, "How come my pics suck so bad next to what this pro did?". I may have the same model of Roleiflex, having purchased it last summer after many years of thinking I could never own a camera this good. In pristine condition, all functions are wonderfully smooth. The lens renders perfectly any crappy subject I point it at.

Really like paintings with soft edges, where the changes in value are not over blended. Awesome painting. Thank you.

Great video. We need to see where we were, in order to know where we are now. Thank you and Happy New Year.

Great stuff. I just got my hands on a rollei. Focus was out and it needed professional attention, but good as new now. I look forward to a retirement like your life: photography and painting. I’ll be watching you content, thanks.

I have missed you and your painting! Thank you for popping back into my feed. This was exactly the little boost of whimsy I needed to see tonight.

Sharpness is overrated and sometimes even distracting. That's why this works, I think. -Beautiful atmospheric pictures by the way!

Hi Robert , like what you did with this painting, thanks for sharing Craig

Love the way you switch between the really formal technical stuff and the abstract fun, always good to remind yourself how to play

Thank you, Robert. My head isn't into sketching right now, but that doesn't mean I'm not creating. Photography, woodcarving, reading, garden design, and whatever muse that catches my fancy until I want to sketch again.

But Donnie wants it and what Donnie wants, Donnie steals. In all seriousness, fabulous painting, Robert. Echoes of the Seven, especially Franklin Carmichael and Lawren Harris.

Thanks for this Robert - I'm going to go and look at this camera now. Back in the 70s my first job was working at a colour photo lab, Is it true that if you send off a roll of film today, although they might send you prints part of their process is digital and then back to print? If that is true it would negate the whole reason to go back to roll film. I like your B+W photos and i liked the way you caught the sun on the water reflected in a window, top left of the photo of the car ferry with the life boat. Thanks again - I'd like to see more. I'm a painter like you.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. to you as well . Thank you for the lovely scene of snowy lake superior.

Merry Christmas Robert.

Merry Christmas Robert , God bless you . Hope , Peace , Joy and Love , for you and your family . Art and love makes the world better . Best wishes in 2025 ! With gr . Petra , from the Netherlands .

Merry Christmas to you and your family. Thank you for inspiring me to paint again

Merry Christmas 🎄 we changed seasons while I watched, lovely 😍

Always loved that camera. Sigh But I did a lot of b&w with my Leica M6. Such a wonderful experience

can you do a tut? i love abstarct art! and i would love to create it!