In the Studio with Robert Goldstrom: Capturing the Timeless Brooklyn Skyline
"I have been painting the Williamsburg Savings Bank Building and its place in the Brooklyn landscape for about ten years with some frustration. Many of these paintings want to be big, but their size has been limited by the size of my studio, located in the front bedroom of our Brooklyn townhouse. Ironically, since moving my studio to a barn in the Hudson Valley, these Brooklyn paintings have finally begun to live up to their potential."
- Robert Goldstrom, 2016
Robert Goldstrom paints with the integrity of a photo realist painter, yet his is a romantic narration triggered by an indescribable feeling. A long time resident of Brooklyn, Goldstrom has a particular view of his beloved borough shared only by local wanderers. Documentary style views of iconic buildings and bridges are backlogged in his bank of visual imagery. When the impulse to turn a memory into a painting takes over, he does just that. For this new series of cityscape paintings, the details of the scene initially come together as a small study on 10 x 8 inch canvas.
Reality converges with mood as he intuitively edits through the details of the physical landscape, selecting what to keep and what to discard. A compositional equilibrium is at last discovered, though not without trial and error. To this, Goldstrom applies a painterly filter of light, injecting the familiar street scene with the same raw human emotion that triggered his impulse in the first place. Straight edges of the architectural horizon are met with wispy cloud formations, distorting ever so slightly the red brick hues. Blue shadows and golden light take turns pervading various corners of buildings as the position of the sun changes.
When a study is turned into a larger scale painting, Goldstrom sets out on a different journey. One painting is not a mere copy of the first, rather careful consideration is given to how it should be different in order to be successful on a larger plane. Few others come close to Goldstrom’s unique ability to so expertly choreograph a visual experience.
After years of making a living as an illustrator, winning both Gold and Silver Medals from the Society of Illustrators, Robert turned more and more to creating personal work. Now a full-time artist, he usually works in series – The Anatomy Lesson, Aquarium Paintings, Bank Paintings – following an idea from image to imageuntil it plays itself out.
Robert has shown his work at MDH Fine Arts and Underbridge Pictures in New York City, the A Galleryin Provincetown , MA, Weiler House Fine Arts in Fort Worth, TX, and now Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson, NY.
His work is in the collection of The Smithsonian Institution, The Cooper Hewitt, and many private collections, and has been featured on television in CSI on CBS, the Fox series, The Following, and the forthcoming NBC series, Allegiance.
Robert Goldstrom, self portrait
Carrie Haddad Gallery | 622 Warren Street | Hudson, NY 12534
518-828-1915 | Open Daily 11 - 5 pm
