Blob Paintings

Portraits in the manner of William Adolphe Bouguereau, French, 1825-1905

Landscapes in the manner of Jan Van Der Heyden, Dutch, 1637-1712

Paintings in the manner of

Click To Contact

Inspiring Smiles Forever

Complete Works, Portraits, Landscapes, Still Lifes, Sculpture, Lego Artist...

Click To Sign up for auction notices or check EBTH & E-Bay

Have any Tom Lohre painting on a myriad of materials via Fine Art America

If you don't see your favorite painting request it to be offered.

Post comments on Sidewalk Shrines and Noted Icons https://www.facebook.com/artisthos/

Online Clifton Chronicle

Home

Blob painting started with Tom making a Lego machine that printed using eight colors from a small digital file where each pixel was printed on a canvas by melting oil pastels on hot metal. In time Tom discovered nine special colors that could represent full color. All nine colors could be found in all color areas some in a major role and others in supporting roles. The technique was developed by distilling an image either color or black and white into nine separate colors. Each color playing a tone and hue role.

Take your pick. Tom's submission for the Golden Ticket. , Portraits

Fiona III, 8" x 10", Oil pastel melted on canvas, Blob manner

24 February, Mostly Cloudy, Wind NE 10-15 kts, Waves NW 5’, Fetch 750’

Christmas Present Booklet of the SPRING 2016 Crossing on Fiona with Captain Eric complete with sea & surface state fax and pencil drawing for each day.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9zk9dor64wwip64/Christmas.pdf?dl=0

Esquire VIII, 12" x 16", Oil pastel melted on spray painted white flashing metal, a work in progress at Clifton Market

In this Painting of the Esquire Theater the main subject is the group of people walking across the street. They need to be created in Poser, a digital mannequin program. The figures with their dogs are pivotal to the painting’s success. The figure composition starts in the mind then to pencil and refined in the computer program. The 12” x 16” street scene of three buildings in a neighborhood of Cincinnati not unlike anywhere in the world with its movie theater the Esquire, four story prewar building with small servant rooms on the top floor. The façade anointed with three circular motifs on top of two half circles of brick highlighted white housing Sitwell’s Coffee House and Pangaea Clothiers on the first floor. Across the small street serving as an impromptu plaza with seating, bulletin board and flags with lights is a nondescript post war apartment building housing a favorite ice cream parlor Graeter’s. The scene is twilight, still able to discern everything, vibrant animated clouds of green and blue moving into the dark building tops then lightening as the gas and shop lights brighten the wet streets. The composition primary squeezing all the elements in the vertical rectangle not diverting too much from reality, just enough to make it noticeable and setting up the believability of the friends crossing the street. They are the story.

Esquire Theater VII, 8" x 10", Oil pastel melted on spray painted white metal, March 28, 2017

Esquire Theater VI, 10" x 8", Oil pastel melted on spray painted white metal, March 20, 2017

Anthony's Birthday Present, 12" x 16", Oil pastel on metal, 1/8" crayons, Ooctober 10, 2016, Portraits, Figures, Commission

Modified this image into a nine color blob painting.

Behringer Crawford Museum's FreshArt 2016 submission, Devou Park 360°, 16" x 12" oil on board, September 17, 2016

https://360player.io/player/Nc8ybZ/

This painting idea started with the development of 360° images. The painting is 16” x 12” stretched to 36” x 18” the size of the 360°.

Holidays on Ludlow III, 16" X 12", March 10, 2017, Oil pastel melted on scrapped smooth gessoed board, Blob manner

The horses and carriage with the Esquire Theater. The work started from life, finished in the studio. This work is oil pastels melted on scrapped smooth gessoed board. The heat gun came in handy to warm yourself. Tom had to extrapolate the snow. The next version will be a nine color blob painting. This version used the full complement of 133-1/8" custom oil pastel colors.

Perfect North Ski Resort VII, Oil pastel on metal, 8" x 10", January 29, 2017, Blob manner

Ludlow Clifton Crossroads, 16" x12", Oil pastel melted on metal, 360° painting to be shown at the Clifton Cultural Art Center's Community Art Show and entered in the CCAC Golden Ticket Art Show. Looking at the 2D image of the 360°, start on the left side, you see Jefferson Avenue looking east, then the fountain composed of a two small strokes in a field of dark purple, next the street signs on a pole, then you look up Clifton Avenue, then the firehouse and westward down Ludlow Avenue. Move right and you pass Clifton Avenue looking north then see the two tall four story buildings that are Skyline and J Gumbo’s. 360° images are formatted 2:1, width is twice the height. The image was squeezed for the 16” x 12” painting. The painting image was resized to 2:1 and uploaded into online viewers.

https://360player.io/player/ytjDrF/

Looking at this painting using the 360° viewer link above, look up and move around until you see the road signs for orientation. Then look down a little to the right and you are looking westward down Ludlow Avenue. Move right and you pass Clifton Avenue looking north then see the two tall four story buildings that are Skyline and J Gumbo’s. Moving further right you look up Jefferson Avenue and then the fountain composed of a two small strokes in a field of dark purple.
Though this painting is small and the consequence is abstraction, a larger canvas would allow better immersion into the 360° effect.
This painting uses a special technique of melting nine special oil pastel colors. Each color plays a major roles in creating atmosphere and form. Though the surface looks like an impasto impressionistic oil painting melting the oil pastels makes the execution clean, simple and once cooled, dry to touch. Tom invented the technique for a Lego painting machine he made. The manner appealed so much to Tom because he could travel with it and create paintings that looked like oil but without the messiness and drying time. The painting machine could only handle eight colors. Tom experimented in many variations of eight colors and in time distilled all colors into these nine. The manner is uniquely Tom’s.
Though in its infancy, 360° images will take over. Like the old days where you had to set parameters to get the computer to work, displaying a 360° is a real challenge. In the future, everyone will wear virtual glasses, part of your phone.

Devou Park 360°, 10" x 8", Oil pastel melted on board, July 2017

https://360player.io/player/yLGWrd/

With the introduction of 360° images Tom creates paintings to be viewed with 3D goggles and 360° viewers. First, he develop the composition by taking a 360° image; second, create a 2D image of the 360° re-proportioning it to the canvas size; third, paint the canvas; fourth, capture an image of the painting, re-proportioning it to the original 360° image, laying it on top of the original 360° image, flatting and saving.

To be auctioned at 360°: Where Art & Giving Unite United Way Art Auction & Reception Benefitting Childhood Poverty Friday, August 18, 2017 6 to 8 p.m. Union Hall 1311 Vine St, Cincinnati, OH 45202, Cincinnati OH

WHY UNITED WAY United Way fights for the health, education, and financial stability of every person in our community. Their work has improved the lives of over 360,000 people across ten counties in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Today, the biggest issue facing our region is childhood poverty and they are taking the lead to address it. To learn more about how you can join the fight, visit www.uwgc.org.

Texas Longhorn, 16” x 12”, Oil pastel melted on metal, September 27, 2017
Images of Longhorns proliferate on the Internet, many in wild colors. Tom’s nine high keyed color palette is perfect for this rendition of the classic Longhorn Steer posing like he is on the cover of “Bull Buying Today.”

Melting nine oil pastel colors on heated canvas creates a beautiful colorful bouquet rendition of the subject.

Perfect North Ski Resort VII, Oil pastel on metal, Blob, 8" x 10", January 29, 2017

Fiona III, 8" x 10", Oil pastel, Blob, Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Painted from sketch from Third Crossing. Tom used the nine color palette to simulated full color. All the parts of the painting are rendered in nine colors. The colors co-mingle with each other not always playing the hue of the part but the transition of light to dark.

Commission your own blob painting. Provide a drawing or image to transform it into a nine color blob painting like above.

Zurich II, 6" x 4", Oil pastel, Blob, melting 1/8" crayons on gessoed board

Fountain Square LXXI, Oil pastel, Glow, Blob, 12" x 16", Tuesday, Janaury 20, 2015
Tom started working with glow in the dark colors while developing his Lego painting machine in 2003. The addition of new colors stymied Tom till 2015 when he was willing to advance the process dovetailing it with his March 2015 Show.
There are two aspects of glow in the dark. Some of the colors can be seen and other colors are colored with an approximation of the glow color. For now, Tom will be using the glow colors for skies and reflection of the sky on the water. Tom developed an applicator to facilitate thicker glow color for the daylight version to show an opaque surface.

Fountain Square LXIX, Oil pastel, Blob, 18" x 36", Saturday, January 3, 2015

Irene IV, 8" x 10", Oil pastel, Blob portrait, Friday, March 6, 2015

Fountain Square LXIX, Oil pastel, Blob, 18" x 36", Saturday, January 3, 2015

Dolphin Boy II, Acrylic on canvas, Blob, 30" x 40", December 4, 2014

The Tyler Davidson fountain has been painted by Tom many times. The first paintings were done in the winter from the second floor of the Westin Hotel. Earlier Tom painted a woman’s portrait with one of the corner statues in the foreground. This painting is the state of the art Tom’s series. The statue plays a dual role of colorful bouquet of color and abstract image of a popular motif in Cincinnati. The nine colors were refined over years. Each color plays a special role and has a deep effect on the artist. Tom feels that these nine colors can take the viewer where he wants to take them with as little extra as possible. These colors were specially mixed at the paint store and have been used almost exclusively. Every time Tom tries to revise or adapt the series it never hits the mark as these colors do. By expanding the color blob sizes you can abstract the work until it plays against knowing and enjoying.

Mount Adams XII, Acrylic on canvas, Blob, 48" x 30", December 1, 2014

Holidays on Ludlow IV, $500, 36" x 24", October 13, 2015, Oil pastel, Blob

Holidays on Ludlow III, Oil pastel, Blob, 24" x 18", Finished September 17, 2015
Oil pastel on melted on metal, framed in a French style simulated gold leaf over clay over wood with no seam in corners.
Tom’s interest in this painting was to advance his nighttime painting skills. The first painting was started from life across the street from Graeter’s Ice Cream when the horse drawn carriage was taking Cliftonites on rides during Holidays on a Ludlow, merchants open their doors in the evening with Santa arriving by firetruck to Clifton Plaza. It was a cold night with light rain and the heat gun came in handy. Tom is perfecting the colors. In the beginning nine colors where used. Now seventeen colors are used then associate colors are added. By using just seventeen colors you create a forced atmosphere using the color combinations to drive the atmosphere. Atmosphere is everything in a great painting. Without atmosphere the scene is common place. Atmosphere can be created in any time or light using simple color combinations. On the right center is the lighted marquee of the Esquire Theater. Many such paintings have been done and the breakthrough in this work is its hair line stance on abstraction and reality with the atmosphere taking center stage. In the future he hopes to move the color scheme to gray. Gray being the more emotional color.

Holidays on Ludlow II, 18" X 24", September 8, 2015, Oil pastel, Blob

Tom's interest in this painting was to advance his nighttime painting skills. The first painting was started from life across the street from Graeter’s Ice Cream when the horse drawn carriage was taking Cliftonites on rides during Holidays on a Ludlow, merchants open their doors in the evening with Santa arriving by firetruck to Clifton Plaza. Tom is perfecting the colors simplifying the original colors to twenty. You can see the lighted reindeer on the top of the Graeter’s building. In the center is the lighted marquee of the Esquire Theater. On the right is the traditional florescent lite vacuum plastic sign of Lentz & Company, a retro furnishings store.

Clifton Market and Esquire Theater on Ludlow Avenue, 12" X 16", September 9, 2015, Oil pastel, Blob

The main elements are the Esquire Theater on the left with a gaslight in front of it with a locust tree. The street winds up the hill towards Forest Avenue. On the right is Clifton Market, a co-op grocery store that replaced Keller’s IGA. On top of the market is the fire house lookout cupola on top of the firehouse which is behind Clifton Market. Tom feels that he needs to make these works larger since the stroke size is too large for this size work. Twenty-four by twenty will be the next size and more colors will be introduced. Although Tom enjoys using only nine colors these nine colors are too much of a stretch for the average viewer. He wants to effect a true emotional atmosphere. This work was started on location, creating the composition first and then molding the objects in the painting to the composition. Tom feels the canvas size must determine the composition. The elements were distorted to fit into the composition. The light is morning.

Clifton Fountain and Firehouse on Ludlow Avenue, 12" X 16", July 17, 2015, Oil pastel, Blob

Tom interest in this painting is to advance his atmospheric studies. He feels a successful painting needs to have a deliberate atmosphere. Using the evening or morning light helps create atmosphere but the atmosphere in a successful painting eclipses this simple use of natural light. For years Tom painted in daylight using the light he saw in from of him without really working with the emotional atmosphere that could have been developed. This work was started on location, creating the composition first and then molding the objects in the painting to the composition. The main elements are the Clifton Fountain on the left in front of the Firehouse building with its fire lookout box on top of the building. In the center is the single perspective view down Ludlow. The light is twilight.