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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 PaintingsClick on thumbnail for larger image
Clifton Family, 24" x 20", oil on canvas, December 2009 http://tomlohre.com/portrait.htm The Balcony, Ludlow Ave, Cincinnati, Ohio, 8" x 10", Oil on board, April 2006 “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 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 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 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 Sitwell's Coffee House Interior, 20" x 16", oil on board, March, 2006 Perry Street, NYC, 8" x 10", oil on canvas, September 2006 Fountain Square with Woman, 8" x 10", Oil on canvas, September 2005 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 Katrina Relief Fund, 8" x 10", oil on canvas, October 2005 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 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 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 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 “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 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.
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