Yawl in a Following Sea
by Robert Hanlon
The Pink Room
by Robert Hanlon
Flying
by Robert Hanlon
September 15 - October 31, 2010
Artist Reception - Sat, September 18, 4-6pm
Robert Hanlon is first an artist. Whether he is building furniture for his "day-job" or wielding a paintbrush in front of his easel -- the creative force is always present. In fact, the inspiration for his furniture-making is pretty much the same as for his painting. For the past twenty-five years Hanlon has taken cast-off antique panels salvaged from 18th- and 19th-century houses and turned them into unique pieces of furniture at his Essex, MA studio/showroom.
When not being reincarnated into tables, cabinets and the like, the architectural panels also provide him with a “jumping-off” point for the work he creates at his easel. Coated with as many as fifteen layers of paint, two-hundred-or-more years have provided each piece of wood with a patina that will eventually become the background for Robert’s art.
Artist's Statement: I paint what I know and love, from memory: the Essex salt marsh, Penobscot Bay, sailboats, trees, the human form. I also borrow unashamedly from whatever images I find lying about in newspapers and books. Marc Chagall's work and the Ballet section of the New York Times have inspired a continuing series of flying people. I have no training and prefer to stumble along with what I find on my own, using error instead of expertise for inspiration. I began painting in 2005.
Visit the artist’s web site
"Robert Hanlon's intimate, richly atmospheric paintings come bearing ghosts. They begin as cast-offs, the wooden flotsam of dismantled barns, houses, tables, and chairs--a logical source of inspiration for an artist with an established reputation for designing and constructing whimsical furniture as well. Studying the vestigial brushstrokes and stains on these salvaged panels, Hanlon transforms them into scenes as ordinary as that of a girl absorbed in the world of a book, as sensual as a woman zipping up her dress, as fanciful as a baby learning how to fly... Recently, he has also turned his inner eye toward more imaginary landscapes; to walk into a room hung with these pictures feels a little like entering a fairy tale--where, at any moment, a knight or dragon might emerge from a dark nocturnal forest."
-Julia Glass
The Firehouse Center for the Arts Art Gallery
The Firehouse Center for the Arts features twelve gallery shows a year. Each show is selected from submissions each Spring for the following year’s shows. Gallery exhibits have included local, national and international artists and have given our community the opportunity to view a variety of artwork including photography, paintings, monotype and sculpture.
Call for Artists
The Call for Artists' Submissions for the current season is now closed. Please check here for future calls. You may also sign up for the Firehouse newsletter where all Calls for Submissions, Auditions, etc. are posted as they are received. Please be sure to put "Newsletter" in the subject line.
