Self-taught artist. Learned mostly from doing and from looking at other artists' paintings (or reproductions of, in books and magazines), and from looking at the world around me. My artistic heroes are John Constable, Winslow Homer, Charles Burchfield, Rockwell Kent and Edward Hopper. Live in upstate NY. Paint mostly landscapes, most of which are upstate NY scenes, although not all. I'm a regionalist, I guess. Sometimes I paint animals, both wild and domestic. Work in various art mediums, primarily acrylics, pastels and watercolors - just beginning to experiment with oils and alkyds. I'm a hunter of sorts, not a hunter of animals, not a hunter with a gun, but a landscape hunter.
The medium isn't really the message for me, though, the land is. And nature. And the environment. You paint what you love, and I love the natural world around me, and want it to remain beautiful and clean and able to support both animals and people for many years to come. The reaction I'd like to get from people when they look at one of my paintings isn't quite so much the, 'Wow! What color!' or 'Look at that technique!' reaction, although I don't exactly mind that. Instead, it's more along the lines of, 'What a cool place! I'd like to go for a walk there (or paddle a canoe there) someday.' And I'd like them to be able to do those things, so I guess what I'm trying to do is show people some of the natural beauty that's out there, in the hopes that they will want to protect and preserve it.
What I'd like to do with my art is find a gallery that likes my paintings and wants to display and promote them. In the meantime, FAA is a fairly inexpensive place to display and keep track of my work (and to provide artwork to the common man that celebrates the land and nature at an affordable price). Please note that quite a few of the paintings listed here are available for purchase, even though I may not yet have gotten around to designating them as such. So if you see an original that you're interested in, send me an email. You can also check out my Etsy page, The Forest and the River, for originals. And if you live in or are visiting Central NY, I have originals at the Selective Eye in the old mill town of Little Falls, at the Little Falls Antique Shop (also in Little Falls), and at the Micropolis, a co-op art gallery in Gloversville, NY.
Thank you for looking at my work,
Robert Coppen
Robert Coppen joined Pixels.com Licensing on November 28th, 2010.
