These paintings were painted on the street. Working from life guides the color and form to be the best with the least. Sometimes it means sitting a few inches from speeding cars. The optimal setting for life work is where the artist can best focus on giving the art what it needs. Tom discovered that working from inside a quite shop looking out the window produced the best results.

              Tom is melding his formidable portrait skills with his accomplished “en plein air” manner. For thirty years he has painted formal portraits that sometimes take upwards of a year to paint. The life size portraits are masterpieces of modern romanticism. The surface of the canvas is amazing to look at for Tom uses the white of the canvas and transparent tints to create lifelike form. Tom is obsessed with the surface of the painting. He emulates the great master figurative painter William Adolph Bouguereau.

Tom started his “en plein air” work, artwork painted outdoors, after mastering his portrait manner. He honed his skills by painting outdoors everyday. He would paint scenes devoid of people even though they would be in very popular locations.

Now Tom incorporates well wrought figures into his “en plein air” work. The figures and composition are worked up in the studio and painted on location. Nature is Tom’s inspiration. He will take numerous photographs of people milling about and uses these images as stepping off points for the figures he creates in his canvases. The eight inch high figures in the new work can be portraits. The small figure in the painting can look just like a person but the size prevents it from becoming to ponderous.

This works catalyst was the digital mannequin program, "Poser." Just before discovering this program Tom spent the usual time working up several figurative works in the old method of transposing various images until the composition was ready to paint. Now, each portrait's subject is created as a digital manigiun and posed and lighted in the pose of the panting. The lighting is especially accurate. The unique thing about the images derived from the maniguin program is the simplicity of the rendering. It is as if the student of the sphere, square, cone was given yet another simple depiction of form on the very subject of the painting.

The Paintings

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Clifton Family, 24" x 20", oil on canvas, 2008

The Balcony, Ludlow Ave, Cincinnati, Ohio, 8" x 10", Oil on board, April 2006, $2,400

“The Balcony” shows the second floor apartment above the shop “Spiral Light.” Tom was working on another painting when he notices this woman planting flowers. The ornate railing was always a favorite view and the greening of the balcony gives direction to the painting. This painting was done just inches from speeding cars.

Ludlow Avenue Bulletin Board, 12" x 16", oil on board, April, 2006, $3,500

Tom considers this a pivotal painting in his “Urban Landscape Series.” By chance he saw the two women just as they are clothed and depicted. The scene is simplified of additional objects like bikes, more planters, signs, etc. but the color and overall effect gave Tom a euphoric feeling he had never experienced. It was as if the feeling a great painting give the viewer was continually experienced by Tom as he worked on the painting. He worked on this painting from Bender Optical. The quite warm office was an excellent place to work.

Ludlow Garage in Snow, 12" x 16", oil on board, March, 2006, $900

Tom worked from inside the barber shop to paint this work. The woman was seen walking by. You can imagine the spring snow being here on day and gone the next. You can still see the empty parking spaces from the morning rush hour.

Esquire Theatre in Winter, 16" x 12", oil on board, March, 2006, $1,200

This work painted from inside Dan's Clifton Barbers. It had snowed a few days earlier and Tom took advantage of the memory.

Telford Avenue with Snow, 16" x 12", oil on board, March, 2006, $1,200

Sitwell's Coffee House Interior, 20" x 16", oil on board, March, 2006, $600

Perry Street, NYC, 8" x 10", oil on canvas, September 2006, $400

Fountain Square with Woman, 8" x 10", Oil on canvas, September 2005, $500

This work was composed in the studio. The idea for the girl in the foreground was adapted from a photo Tom took the day before while working on Fountain Square.

Fountain Square IV, 10" x 8", Oil on canvas, September 2005, $300

Katrina Relief Fund, 8" x 10", oil on canvas, October 2005, $500

This work painted in Hyde Park, one of Cincinnati’s Villages. The idea for the girl came from a street fund raising effort on Ludlow Avenue. Cincinnati’s Conservatory of Music organized a New Orleans Style Band to set up on the street while other students solicited money from the passing cars.

Paul Brown Stadium, 8" x 10", oil on canvas, November 2005, $400

This work painted outside of Paul Brown Stadium during the week before the game. During the game Tom discovered that the whole area if crowded with smokers.

Hyde Park Fountain, Cincinnati, Ohio, 8" x 10", oil on canvas, October 2005, $400

A detail of the Kilgore Fountain is shown. The girl in the painting was inspired by a shop clerk who walked the shop dog frequently during the time Tom was working on the small painting.

Ludlow Avenue Bulletin Board, 8" x 10", oil on canvas, September 2005, $600

Inspired from a snap shot Tom took on the street the day before. The woman was very rotund and the dog had pink spray paint on its coat.  In the background is the perennial bicycle with the flower baskets, anchored to the bike hitching post complete with flat tire.

New York City Clean, 8" x 10", oil on canvas, October 2005, $900

“New York City Clean” was also painted from life on the streets of New York City. The painting has quite a lot of street dirt on it from Tom’s sitting so close to Sixth Avenue. The funniest thing that happened to Tom was a man across the street dressed up in his Sunday’s finest light gray suit, pastel blue shirt and light gray shoes. He stood in front a bus across the square and yelled at it for a good half hour. He was berating the bus for being parked there. Did not the bus know that the square was called Father Demos Square because a church burned down on this spot and the city would not allow the church to be rebuilt so the spot was made into a square for the sole purpose of remembering the denial of the city? He constantly said that the square was only to be used for sitting and no bus parking was allowed. After the man got tired of talking to the bus he came over to where Tom was working and laid into him. There was to be no tripods set up. Tom was flabbergasted by the affront. Never had he experienced such a tongue lashing. Since Tom had his guitar on his lap he was also told to take that guitar over to Washington Square, there was to be no guitar playing on Father Demos Square. Tom finally had to tell the man that he was sorry but the man would have to get the police to have him removed. After a good long time the man finally walked off. Later while Tom was talking to a local bench sitter he learned that the man had been diligently performing his job for several years. He never returned.  Father Demos’s church was rebuilt across the corner into the magnificent “Our Lady of Pompeii.”

Bogart's, Corryville, Cincinnati, Ohio, 16" x 20", October 2002, $400

This work painted from life. Tom drove his flying bicycle through Ludlow and Jefferson Villages to get to Corryville, one of the many little villages in Cincinnati. He started the painting in the studio, projecting an image of the street onto the canvas along with some images of girls he had taken around the neighborhood villages. When he started painting there was a girl handing out flyers in from of The Cupboard. The flyers were for a competing store across the street. Tom ended up painting the shopkeeper of The Cupboard in her regular spot in the front door. The manner of the painting is much rougher than usual for Tom. It is an experiment in momentary human expression hoping to present a solid finished idea but in a manner, that shows the human size and stroke. This manner was influenced by Tom’s friend in England who paints everyday quick oil sketches. He is constantly touting to paint the whole all at once.

Irving Berlin's Home, NYC, 10" x8", Oil on canvas, October 1996, $900

This work painted from life in the upper east side of New York City. The home is now the home of the Ducy of Luxembourg. Tom was staying in a hotel nearby while his wife attended a professional meeting and made use of the splendid opportunity to work in the fancy Sutton Place neighborhood. The home was previously owned by Irving Berlin for many years. Tom knows John Wallowitch, a composer like Berlin, who lives just down the street. Every Christmas Eve John and his friends would sing Christmas carols outside his home. Sometimes Irving would come to the window. While working on the painting for several days Tom felt quite safe in the ritzy, glitzy neighborhood. A proverbially who’s who of American and European wealthy would walk by and it was one of the few places where Tom felt he could leave his paint stand for a few minutes to go down the street to get a sandwich.  

Several people expressed a lot of interest in the painting while he worked on it as the leaves fell from the Ginkgo trees that grow plentiful in the city. It is said that the Ginkgo tree is a prehistoric tree that was capable of surviving volcanic eruptions and the massive pollutants that come with such eruptions so is perfectly suited for growing in the polluted city. Tom had painted many such paintings on the street but worked especially hard on this one because he was slowly moving out of the apartment he lived at for twenty years in Greenwich Village and was moving to Cincinnati, Ohio, where his wife worked and his hometown.  

The composition of the painting is a variation of Tom’s tunnel view down city streets. In this view the street ends as the cliff begins dropping down a hundred or so feet to the East River. The color is indicative of Tom’s strong light and dark manner where the two light fluxes are juxtaposed against each other. The dark shadow areas are full of variation as well as the light areas but when a photo is taken of the painting the two areas cannot be reproduced correctly. Either the light or the dark area has to be focused on for the light flux difference is so great, very much like human vision.  

Tom used his yellow light and blue shadow manner. Changing the color of the light and dark areas to lean towards a stronger color gives piazza to the paintings.

Mike Fink's Gets Robbed, 10" x8", Oil on canvas, 1998, $200

This work was painted from Rogers Clark Park above the Ohio River during the Duveneck Art Festival. Tom was a participant and painted this work as a illustration of the robbery showing the robbers carrying off the safe in the foreground.

Portsmouth England, 10" x 8", Oil on canvas, February 2001, $200

Village Delight, Greenwich Village, New York City, Oil on canvas, October 1997, $1,200

This work was painted from life, one of the last paintings done before giving up his NYC apartment of twenty years. It was the time where showing in coffee shops was popular and this place as a shoe in for Tom. He distributed coupons during the opening for $2 off whatever his guests wanted. For the rest of the week he painted this view. The players are all characters and much in the way of a local neighborhood, happenings occurred.  

Li Lac Chocolate, Christopher Street, New York City, 12" x 16", Oil on canvas, October 1994, $2,400

This work painted on the street with the wind and all. The weather was cold those Fall days Tom sat in the gutter painting what has become a beloved chocolate shop. The owner liked the painting so much she purchased a duplicate of it. In the painting delivered to her there was a police officer walking down the street and two girls admiring the fine chocolates along with their dog.

Annapolis Maryland, 10" x 8", Oil on canvas, July 1999, $900

Gentry Tobacco Warehouse, 10" x 8", Oil on canvas, June 1999, $600

Hong Kong Harbor, 10" x 8", Oil on canvas, September 1994, $600

Zero Main St. Nantucket, 20" x 16", Oil on canvas, August 1993, $850

Pacific Club. Nantucket, 20" x 16", Oil on canvas, August 1993, $850

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 24” x 20”, Oil on canvas, September 1992, $1,600

Piedmont Park, Atlanta, 10" x 8", Oil on canvas, September 1995, $600

Main Street, Nantucket I , 20” x 16”, Oil on canvas, August 1987, $1,200 

Nantucket, Main Street II, 24" x 20”, Oil on canvas, August 1987, $2,400

This larger version of the one above is the crowning achievement in Tom's Nantucket paintings. He liked the 20" x 16" enough to make a larger version of it.

Tom painted on the Island of Nantucket from 1985 to 1989. In the first two years he worked for James Hunt Barker. In the later years he could be seen painted five different scenes on Main Street all summer long. He was painting a canvas a day trying to learn his craft. He has painted more than 800 Nantucket paintings. Heretofore he was classically trained in portraiture from Ralph Wolfe Cowan, the world's greatest portrait painter who has painted more royalty than any other living artist.  

It took two seasons for Tom to master a en plein air manner. The greatest canvases were done in the year 1987.  

Tom married Irene Moore in 1994 and only returned for several years sailing in from East Hampton. When his daughter was born the sails stopped. He hopes to return.  

Public Market Center, Seattle, 16” x 20”, Oil on canvas, October 1996, $500

Painted as a typical tourist painting. When I travel I like to paint a scene much like a person would photograph scenes. The first day in Seattle I traveled all over the area looking for a scene and finally settled on a view that was only a few blocks from my hotel. This area of Seattle is quite a tourist attraction. There are about 200 little shops in the public market selling everything from fish to shrunken heads. It occupies the whole face of a steep cliff winding its way down to the seaport docks. A trolley carries people along the waterfront, which is quite developed with tourist attractions. 

The market was originally created to supply the workers in the city, food for their dinner. They would shop and then go home. Today, it is much the same and at 6 O’clock the whole place closes down and is locked up tight. Only the cities poor and homeless occupy the streets till morning. During my several days painting on the street I met a Navaho and a Tlingit Indian. The former was a CAD/CAM computer artist and the latter was the head of a tribe of Indians that performed native dances. 

The painting has a great light flux. The clouds, like they are most times are heavy with a little patch of blue, are painted with little pure white. The foreground is dark and thinly painted. The scene looks like it is about 5:30PM just after the shops close and before the rush hour starts.

The large sign “Public Market” is really a funny type of sign that gets caught up in being a important part of the local heritage. If you look very closely to the left of the “Farmers Market” sign, that area is where the fish throwing starts.

ATT Atrium, New York City, Oil on canvas, 16" x 20", 1993, $3,000

Goose Girl Fountain, Covington, Ky, 8" x 10", Oil on canvas, 1994, $200

Mead Paper Plant, Atlanta, Ga, 16” x 12”, Oil on canvas, 1987, $200

7th Ave South, New York City, Oil on canvas, 20" x 16", 1987, $5,000

Chemical Bank, Greenwich Village, NYC, Oil on canvas, 16” x 12”, 1987, $750

One of the finest examples of Tom's impressionistic work. So strong is this painting that it needs the frame it hangs in. The scene is a normal dirty dusty view from mid-Manhattan but the use of color makes it become more than it is. Tom lived on the street where the painting was done. He set up his easel in front of the famous Village Cigars and worked there for several days. As you might imagine, there were hordes of people moving around him and some felt that they were put out.  

These works displayed at the Visual History Gallery April 21^st to May 10^th 2006

The Visual History Gallery sells the photographs of Sarge Marsh. He worked as a commercial photographer in Cincinnati from 1920 to 2000. His most popular works are images of the Cincinnati Reds.

Mike Wilger, proprietor

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