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Tall Stacks Images and Painting

4' x 3', Impasto oil on canvas

Painted with a palette knife from on the point where the Licking and Ohio Rivers meet, October 15 & 16, 2003.

Every four years Tall Stacks comes to Cincinnati. 15 sternwheelers line the banks and give cruises with music and reenactments. In this painting the ghost ship "The City of Cincinnati" lands on the point down river from the mouth of the Licking River. In the background you can see the Robeling Suspension Bridge completed in 1864. Behind the bridge you can see the new Paul Brown stadium. The steamboat later became the "President" and was docked in St. Louis until abandoned. It now is laid up down river from St. Louis.

Tom has painted many river paintings and this idea came from a Cincinnati Individual Artists Grant Proposal. The idea entailed producing a very detailed version of the composition where the people who live in the Over-the-Rhine area of downtown around a popular bar and restaurant named Stenger's would be painted into the painting. In addition all the major players in Cincinnati government would be painted also with the residents picking which position they would play. In the end the final painting would be blown up to billboard size and placed on the building wall across the street from the bar.

The pallet knife was used for its rapid coating of the surface of the canvas and its ability to scrape off poorly painted sections quickly and remixing a better color. There is a cleanness to knife painting that does not come from brushes. In the past I have used a brush like a knife by scraping off the paint from the brush, remixing it and then working it into the brush so as not to thin the paint with spirits.

 

Maysville, Kentucky, unfinished  

September 1st, 1999, Oil on canvas, 16" x 12"  

 

 

Mt. Adams with Rowboat  

Oil on canvas, March 22nd, 1999, 16" x 12"  

Mike Fink's Gets Robbed

10" x8", Oil on canvas, May 1998

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.

 

Delta Queen Landing at Cincinnati  

Oil on canvas, 40" x 30", June 11th, 1997  

        This painting is the companion of Tom's earlier, same size work of South Street Seaport. His sister and her husband commissioned the two of them six years ago. Tom delivered the first painting in the Spring of 1992 and now is glad to deliver the second. It took so long because of the massive detail in the work and the resolve not to deliver a inferior work. It was Tom's intention to rival all other work in these two paintings. The first work was of the restored seaport in New York City near Wall Street. It had about thirty people on board the schooner "Pioneer" and about the same number on the wharf. In this "Delta Queen" painting there were substantially more people.  

        The paintings shows the steamboat Delta Queen just finished docking at Cincinnati Landing. To the left of the Queen is the permanently moored showboat Majestic. In the distance you can see the traditional river front of Covington, Kentucky with its famous suspension bridge built by John Robeling and finished in 1860. Just behind the bridge is the modern office tower and contemporary Covington Landing.  

 

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Delta Queen Impression  

Oil on canvas, 40" x 30", October 10th, 1993  

        Tom used hundreds of photographs and on site painting for the painting. He took many photographs of the all three of the "Tall Stacks" celebrations in Cincinnati, Ohio. During the year, while the Delta Queen was docked where it is now in the painting, Tom would be there studying and recording all the details that would be used for the painting. Tom obtained floor plans of the Delta Queen so he could reproduce the boat to the point you could recognize any part of the boat.  

        On shore, Tom used people he knew to populate it. He hired a horse drawn carriage and had his wife, his brother Steve and his wife Becky pose, riding in the carriage. The carriage is owned by his high school classmate, John Meyer. You can read the telephone number on the back of the carriage. For the mounted horseman Tom used his friend, Chester Salisbury and his horse Molly. On shore from left to right are a little girl Tom saw during one of the Queen's many arrivals in Cincinnati. His sister Susan, the owner of the painting and her son, Mikey Gabel. Far behind his sister are two children along the water's edge. Then there is Doctor Larry Johnson, Edna Rosenberg, Tom Umfrid and Chuck Jordan. Below Chuck Jordan is a baby carriage and a small girl. Next in the far background is Ralph Wolf Cowan, Tom's mentor and teacher of many years. Once again there is Mikey Gabel, Tom's nephew and his Father, Dr. Michael Gabel. To the right of Dr. Gabel is a backpacking girl Tom saw at one of the "Tall Stack" celebrations and next to her is legendary river man, Captain John Beatty. Tom's first job was working for Captain Beatty as a deckhand on his floating restaurant the Mike Fink's. Later Tom would work with Captain Beatty during his salvage operations. Captain Beatty had a tremendous impact on Tom and it is this impact that has driven him to do this and other Ohio River paintings. It is Tom's mission to preserve Captain Beatty's memory in a series of paintings of him and his doings on the river.  

        After Captain Beatty are two sophisticated women who represent the many clients of Tom's. In the foreground are two of Tom's cousins and above them is another girl Tom found in one of his many photographs of the view. Tom, himself comes next as a large foreground figure and next to him is his identical twin brother, Chuck. In between them are several of the employees of the Delta Queen going over the details of the arrival. To finish off the view are a few of the period dressed characters hired by the Queen for the passengers and finally some of the crew members tending to the mooring.  

        On the gang plank are the waiters of the Queen putting on a show for the tourists in the manner of a Mari Gras Celebration. On the "Showboat Majestic's" upper deck are two actresses and going to the right of them are the passengers of the steamboat. On top of it all is the pilot surveying the docking.  

 

 

Delta Queen Valley, unfinished  

November 11th, 1997, Oil on canvas, 20" x 16"  

Started from life while taking a ride on the Delta Queen from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati. The weather was not at all good so Tom was only allowed to paint for a few hours.  

 

Showboat below Mt. Adams  

Oil on canvas, 10" x 8", May 18th, 1997  

        Painted during the annual "Duveneck Art Show" sponsored by the Northern Kentucky Heritage League, at George Rogers Clark Park at the foot of Greenup in Covington, Kentucky. The painting is done in an impressionistic manner with the Ohio River in the foreground and the showboat "Majestic docked where it usually is, at the foot of Broadway on Cincinnati Landing. In the background is Cincinnati's most tranquil mount. Mount Adams with the center piece the church of the Immaculata. The time of day is the early morning and the city is mostly in dark shadow with the sky light lemon yellow with it turning blue towards the corners of the painting. It is a small painting framed with a ornate gold leaf replica of a 1800's French frame.  

 

The River, 16" x 20"  

Oil on canvas, Spring 1996  

        The twenty by sixteen inch canvas was painted from the banks of the Ohio just South of the Suspension Bridges' Kentucky pier. Tom worked during the day and night from the shore, fleshing in the beginnings of the canvas. Later in the studio he realized the work. The undertaking is exceptional for its high quality of detail done in traditional style.  

        Tom spend several nights on the river at night sketching in the scene. Later he reaffirmed his composition decision and worked over top of the preliminary oil sketch. This was a work where the beginning oil sketch was in many ways superior to the final detailed work. But Tom decided to paint over the initial oil sketch because he had cow towed to artisans without money and now he was producing a simple work for a deliberate client.  

        A long time client Ms. Linda Brown commissioned this work. It was her husband that actually commissioned it for her Valentines day gift. Ms. Brown already had one painting of the suspension bridge, during the day, done by Tom Lohre and Ms. Brown wanted a night scene with the lights on the bridge! Well Tom, took the opportunity of Cincinnati's 1995 "Tall Stacks" Celebration to complete her wish. The first bridge painting took place on the banks of the Ohio during the day. Painting with the homeless people living right under the pier of the bridge. Now this painting had to be done in the studio. Tom did not have a painting of the Cinergy stadium and decided to included it into the already crowded composition.  

        Back in the studio, Tom finely rendered the many aspects of the scene. He starts with the background and works forward. As in all of Tom's work, he paints like he is building each object with paint. The stadium supports have all the strength to hold up the stands and the lights illuminate the interior area. The bridge piers are strongly laid up to hold the cables. The iron girders are carefully fitted together to hold the roadway. The stern wheeler in the foreground is assembled in the same way it was in the shipyard. All the constituents are formed as though the maker himself was involved.  

        Tom grew up in Northern Kentucky. His first job was working on the "Mike Fink," a floating restaurant moored just down river from the Licking River. His job was to wash the decks and maintain the outside of the marina. Spending time on the river as a young man had a indelible impression on Tom. Legendary river man, Capt. Beatty owned the restaurants Mike Fink and Captain Hook plus a large menagerie of various cranes and work boats for river salvage jobs. The stern wheeler in the foreground of the painting represents the tow boats on the river that Tom worked on. He fondly remembers his boss, a large black man named Henry, whose parents were slaves. Henry worked most of his life for Capt. Beatty. Another one of Tom's bosses was Duey of Newport. His sister owned the riverboat restaurant right up the river from the "Fink." He would scoot about in a oak yawl taking care of the various jobs and lines needing attention. While Beatty's Navy, the collection of salvage equipment, was laid up he would take care of maintaining them. Tom would sometimes travel with him in the yawl like the one in the foreground of the painting.  

 

 

Pioneer on the St Charles River, Charleston Harbor  

Oil on canvas, June 1st, 1995, 20" x 16"  

 

 

Harrisburg, PA, unfinished  

June 15th, 1991, Oil on canvas  

Started from life during a visit to where Tom was meeting his to be wife. She had a talk in Harrisburg. And Tom worked and studied Harrisburg while there. He rearranged the buildings that looked interesting in the canvas.  

 

Covington Landing  

Oil on canvas, 30"X 24", 1989  

            This was the first canvas Tom worked on where he wanted to duplicate the great landscapes of the past. He set up on location and worked a few hours everyday for a month to produce this result. He learned that the composition should not be dependant on where you can set up. In the future he used the composition plastically, painting a form that worked in the canvas area independent on whether you could actually see the scene or not.  

        The view itself is a modern cache of riverboats not unlike those of old. Tom worked on the river for his first job and has every since had a love affair with the lore of the river.  

 

 

Licking River  

Oil on canvas, April 4th, 1987, 16" x 12"  

 

 

Mt. Adams, Cincinnati  

Silkscreen on paper, January 1st, 1988, 36" x 24", Edition of 50  

 

 

Mike Fink's Restaurant; Covington, Kentucky  

Oil on canvas, May 15th, 1978, 28" x 18"  

 

 

Clare E. Beatty  

Oil on canvas, May 1st, 1976, 36" x 24"