RM Hinkelman
LANDSCAPES, SEASCAPES, WILDLIFE PAINTINGS

Artist Statement

Robert M. Hinkelman

A good many years ago I found something that profoundly moved my spirit then and still does today- landscape and seascape painting on canvas.  Along the way, a friend remarked as he looked at one of my paintings that it was like "looking out a window".  That became my inspiration and my goal in a painting - that you feel like you are looking out a window at the sand dunes or the savannah or the marsh at sunrise or the snow covered hills.

 Painters paint in two dimensions- the vertical and the horizontal.  And, we create a third dimension- depth- that the eye and the brain can interpret.  In my sunsets and sunrises, I enhance the feeling of depth by adding background colors to objects such as trees, foliage and rocks in the foreground.  Then, parts of the objects facing the light have a reflective glow.  This brings the light from its source - the distant sunrise- to the foreground enhancing the feeling of depth and creating in the observer the feeling of looking out a window.

 Over the years, the venues have changed from the day-after-day gray of the northeast to the day-after-day sunshine of southeast Florida.  What was a focus on mountains, forests, snow and ice evolved to sand dunes, beaches and oceans, savannahs and marshes bathed in light.  There is openness, expansiveness here with strong colors and soft edges that offer an unlimited choice of subjects.

 As my wife and I travel the south east, the portable studio and the digital camera are always at hand.  One has to be ready when the "aha!" moment occurs.  My visualization of the scene, backed up by photos, combine to form a composition for the canvas.  One of my most recognized paintings is the product of a drive to the country west of Beaufort, NC, to look at property.  There, at a turn in the road, was the marshland, trees and stream that formed the inspiration for "Low Country Sunrise" exhibited in several northeastern and southeastern galleries.

 When the only brushstrokes remaining for the painting are those for the signature, there is a wonderful sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.  I am committed to making sure those feelings continue for a long time.