Artist of Real and Fantastic in High Key Impressionist and Dutch Traditional in Faux Gold Frames

Look to these pages for the latest from the studio and the boat yard. This is a simple web site with no cookies or security hosted by Go Daddy. Trust they will let you have fun browsing.

Have any Tom Lohre painting on Prints, Greeting Cards, Throw Pillows, Duvet Covers, Shower Curtains, Tote Bags, iPhone Cases, T-Shirts, Round Beach Towels, Towels (Beach & Bath), Yoga Mats, Spiral Notebooks, Fleece Blankets, Portable Batteries Chargers, Carry-all Pouches, Weekender Tote Bags, Coffee Mugs, Tapestries, Face Masks, Jigsaw Puzzles, Stickers and Oraments via Fine Art America

Tom's sailing page Stories of 4 Atlantic crossings, boat rebuild, sailing on the Ohio River and links to PDF and videos

My father Tom Senior started this line of leather goods and sold them in the Florida Keys until he died in 1999. Tom is in the process of resurecting his web site.

DeLohre Genuine Shark Skin Leather Goods are crafted by our artisans in Mexico who have been schooled in the renowned old Hispanic traditions of the finest leather tanners and leather workers in the world. Shark leather is one of the toughest leathers known to man. By various calculations it has been assessed at from 7 to 11 times stronger than cowhide. Every DeLohre shark leather product has a very unique and distinctive feature. When the product is finished by our craftsmen a real shark tooth is attached as a mark of excellence and authenticity. DeLohre Shark Leather Goods produces a full line of fine quality products made from this exceptional material including belts, wallets, key cases and accessories.

Look to these pages for the latest from the studio and the boat yard. This is a simple web hosted by Go Daddy site with no cookies or security, except for Google Forms and YouTube links. Trust me and have fun.

Last Updated November 5, 2023. Finally figured out how to upload files from within Dreamweaver making it much easier to update the site. Look forward to lots of updates. It's been two years since I lost this capability because I left one server and moved everything over to GoDaddy. They have been very helpful.

Many videos from Clifton Market when it was going through changes. Very good interviews with artists at the community gallery: Off Ludlow Gallery.

Art being auctioned in April 2024 on EBTH "Everything But The House." After not being sold for a number of years, Tom puts them up for auction at EBTH. Here is a link to past auctions. Bidding starts at a $1 and normally they go for about 1/5 their worth.

These works illustrate the timeline of paintings started by using a machine and then Tom adapted the manner to use himself without the machine. The manner started with Tom needing a manner for a painting machine. He settled on melting oil pastels on a hot surface. Now he uses an agumented hair dryer to heat a small area on the canvas and melting oil pastels.

An excellent painting showing the manner of melting oil pastels. The painting looks like oil paint. This painting also shows the special nine colors Tom settled on to emulate full color. In earlier works Tom would create a special set of eight colors because the Lego painting machine used eight colors. Tom created a small image of 24654 pixels. One pixel for each dot laid down by the Lego painting machine.

AG Lafley, Chairman and CEO of Proctor & Gamble, oil pastel on aluminum, 16" x 20", April 7 2008

AG Lafley, Chairman and CEO of Proctor & Gamble, oil pastel on aluminum, 16" x 20", April 7, 2008
The last painting done by the Lego painting machine. Tom also painted a realistic portrait of Mr. Lafley and had AG sign it after lecturing at the Mercantile Library, Cincinnati, Ohio. He had just written “The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation”. It dovetailed with what Tom was doing. The eight colors used were coming together as the set of colors Tom would start using exclusively in his melting manner.

Face of The Lady of the Waters, the figure atop Cincinnati's Fountain Square, Oil pastel on aluminum, 16" x 20", January 15, 2008
Painted with concern over the transition of light to dark colors. The purple or second darkest color should be lighter. Working with only eight colors each color must be carefully selected. Which means you make a lot of bad color before you get to the right color! Painted with a Lego Mindstorm Invention System painting machine. The Art Machine used to make these paintings is shown. The eight colors on the wheel are rotated to the right color and then applied 24654 times to fill up the 16" x 20" canvas.

The Lego printer that put 24654 dots on a 16" x 20" piece of metal produced fourteen works. The machine sent individual pixel information for each 3/8's round spot made with a 1/4" oil stick.

Published on Tom's birthday it was the perfect birthday present. In this image Tom is working on a formal portrait while his Lego painting machine works on a portrait of his wife, Irene in day glow colors.

Hatfield Coal is a coal company on the Ohio River just down river from Cincinnati Harbor. You can get a clear view of it from I-75 going north from Kentucky. Tom worked on the Ohio River as a deck hand for a salvage company owned by ledgendary riverman Captain John Beatty.

Hatfield Coal was painted using a pantograph printer made with Lego's Mindstorm System shown above. A pantograph is a mechanical device that scales up or down. A sweeping arm follows a black and white plate for each color. Tom started working a machine that painted in 2003. He discovered Lego's Mindstorm Invention System. The system used a computer call a brick to guide sensors and motors. It was an inexpensive way to make the machine.

Links to more about the Lego Mindstorm Invention System that powered the Lego painging machine

Clio and the Whale II, 10" x 8", Crayons melted on paper glued to metal flashing, January 9, 2024

The first painting done after the voyage illustrating when Tom went into the cockpit looking right and saw a whale's tail 12 feet out of the water going down. He thinks it was a sperm whale's tail. Painted in a new manner of melting crayons on a stiff surface using an aqumented hair dryer. He worked up a new set of crayons combining Cray-Pas oil pastels with Crayola crayons to achieve a transparent color. In the past he created a complete palette of Cray-Pas oil pastels by sucking the mixed color into brass tube and extruding them. creating a 1/8" stick of color. These new crayons are 3/8" square created by pouring the special color into a silicone mold created from a mini ice cupe tray by cutting the parations out allowing a 3/8" stick to be created.

Clio and the Whale III, 16" x 12", Crayons melted on paper glued to metal flashing, January 12, 2024

Keilan holding her Dad’s 1978 ACTRA award, Oil on metal, 12” x 16”, December 28, 2023

A gift to Jim Winter, fellow sailor, who helped Tom, Chuck & Willard get Clio, a 32' sailboat, ready for the next 37 days, 2173nm, non-stop, to Kristiansand, Norway. Jim drove us to over ten shops plus offering showers and washing machine. Jim showed the crew all the haunts while he and Tom caught up with all things sailing. Tom had met Jim in 2019 while shipping with Captain Eric Forsyth on Fiona. They both stood on Queen's Dock waiting for Fiona, 42' Westsail, to arrive while monitoring the VHF. Eric called the harbor master on VHF saying he needed fuel, 80° off the rhum line, under sail. They sailed into Queen's Harbor to a berth Tom had prepared after moving various crafts around. Clio arrived after the same leg Fiona had made except Eric had head winds all the way from P-Town. Clio had the same conditions but did not use fuel since they were on their way to Europe from Boston. It took Clio 13 days until they decided to put into Saint John's to get, "A few things!". Just by chance, Jim picked up the landline house phone, the only number Tom had. Jim & Sharon extended great honor on the crew with a fine meal at his home complete with showers! Jim, a radio broadcaster, won an ACTRA, a Canadian award for television/radio excellence. He won it in 1978 for a radio piece he did called 'Birthed Swiler'. The painting is derived from a photo snapped by a newspaper reporter at the Saint Johns airport as Jim arrived back from the ceremonies. Tom added the background of Saint John's Harbor with sailboat Clio third out on a raft.

Chuck, Willard, Jim Winter and Tom in Saint John's. Jim was instrumental in getting everthing done for Clio! Thank you Jim and Sharron. May Keilan's painting be a thank you from all the sailor's you have helped.

"Boy it really takes forever to paint one of these. Then I start eating:( getting a little tipsy usually gives the courage to correct what needs to be, courage to slash and burn. It's all wet. You surgically remove paint and apply the correct color. Since it's all transparent, it's a methodical process. But the result gives me great pleasure."

To Europe and Back 2023-2025

Rookwood Tile, 6' x 9", Commissioned by Willard, Design by Tom Lohre, You can purchase a myriad of things with this image on it by clicking on the link below. From beach towels to phone cases, on demand printing is the wave of the future. The owner, a wonderful classicist, knows how to enjoy life. A perfect example is his commissioning this tile of the boat from the world famous Rookwood Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. The joke is; This is the first thing that gets taken from the sinking boat. Just like the other works of Tom's being the the first things taken from a burning home.

The crew: Tom, captain, Willard, owner, cook and 2nd mate, Chuck, 1st mate. Celebrating Captain Eric who passed away while we were in the North Alantic. Tom went on three Alantic crossings with Captain Eric Forysth and Chuck and Tom were crew on his 2019 Maine sail. Visit his Facebook Page and website:

Chuck's book about the sailing adventure. A hilarious and revealing conversation between Chuck and AI avatar Thalia during the entire voyage.

4,744 nautical miles logged by Clio from Port Clinton, Lake Erie, Ohio to Kotha, Finland.

Following John Quincy Adams' route to Russia in 1809 as the first ambassador to Russia. Initially Adams expected to go straight to Saint Petersburg but a storm took them into Kristiansand, Norway. There he discovered injustices being done to American sailors and then made an additional stop in Helsingor, Demark to petition the government. Boat owner, Willard, Russian Phd. history professor, is writing a book about Adams' journey. Willard, with nautical history on both sides of his family, met Tom 15 years ago and started getting his sea legs back. Tom, with 4 Atlantic crossings under his belt, took Willard under his tutelage to teach him while they went from one small sailboat to another settling on a 32' Bayfield sailboat to rebuild for the voyage taking 7 years installing a new engine, self-steering, electronics, etc. Willard received his captain's credentials from the US Coast Guard. Tom has a masters credentials from the Coast Guard.

Thank you Chuck Lohre for supplying the meat of the footage. Thank you Willard Sunderland for your dream and making it happen. A 15 year effort including 7 years rebuilding, finishing off with 4,744nm four month voyage with few stops. 800 nautical miles from Port Clinton, Ohio on Lake Erie to Boston just to begin the real voyage: Following the route of John Quincy Adams on the Horace on his way to Saint Petersburg, Russia as the first ambassador to Russia in 1809. More like a delivery where you are underway all the time. Not the normal sailboat cruising where you have a pleasant day sail tucking into a beautiful harbor every evening.

We are back from our 4.744 nautical mile voyage from Lake Erie to the border of Russia. It took 5 months and a great toll on Chuck, my identical twin, and the owner. Being their first crossing, they did not know what to expect. This was my fifth crossing, first as captain.
It took 37 days to cross from Saint John's Newfoundland to Kristiansand, Norway. Way too long for a first voyage but we were on a mission for the owner to follow the route of John Quincy Adams the first ambassador to Russia in 1809.
The owner got me started on this project 15 years ago when he discovered I had crossed the Atlantic in 2009. He, being a PhD. A Russian history professor originally wanted to sail into Saint Petersburg but that is on hold. In fact the boat has been mothballed in a gigantic super yacht building made for Russian oligarchs in Kotha, Finland. Maybe once the war is over, he can sail it into Saint Petersburg.

Clio Goes to Russian Border from Lake Erie, fast paced 6 minute slide show of the voyage

About taking a rebuilt 32' 1976 sailboat from Port Clinton, Ohio on Lake Erie to within 30 miles of the Russian boarder in 4 months, June to September 2023.

A scholar takes a trip across the ocean — and down memory lane — to celebrate John Quincy Adams
Adams, a lover of the seas and skies, spoke at the cornerstone laying of the Cincinnati Observatory 180 years ago.

This is the definitive track of the trip. Created by the Garmin InReach device that is on all the time sending signals via satellite every 4 hours.

It’s been a big and various trip: Lake Erie, Erie Canal, Hudson River, Long Island Sound, New England and now the North Atlantic. Each leg honed different skills and now for the offshore skill. 4-hour watches, simple meals, rollercoaster type motion. Planning about 23 days but prepared for 35 days. Found out crew needs to be thick skined, have a long fuse, optimistic outlook, no relatives (we vilolated this one), easily amused, different approaches to conflict resolvement, and agreed on a style of command. We had a great crew.. Chuck as 1st mate is a perfect foil to Tom’s gruff manner. Willard as 2nd mate, cook and owner on a rapid learning curve. After 15 years of planning, 7 years rebuilding the boat, we’re all tired of building and now look forward to cruising.

Made it and nobody got hurt except feelings all over but we are all committed to bringing her back as crew.
The hard labor and tremendous time spent on equipment refit paid off. The return will be easier because we know the day by day on board and will make small but very important tweaks.
It may take a month and a half to move Clio to Falmouth, England. Then the next year from Falmouth, England into the Larentine Channel to the Saint Lawrence Seaway to Lake Erie.
The boat may stay in the customs shed in Kotha, Finland until till Russia opens up because the time Clio is in the customs shed she is not counted against the 18 month EU residenency rule.

Rounding the top of Scotland proved difficult to both ships. Head winds and lulls prolonged their voyages.

First day on land since July 31. 37 days, 2,400nm, 1000 crashes of the hull against 12ft seas. Endless circle of 4 hour watches with 2 two hour watches to make your next watch the one earlier. Crew learned a lot about running Clio. Each with his achievements and foibles. I learned to accept the crew I have and not the crew I wanted. 7 years of rebuilding a 1976 stout, blue water 32' boat only to wait to experience how she handled big water offshore for three days of 24/7 10ft waves and 22 knot winds. I was used to the pounding on other boats but to experience it for the first time on Clio was something we could not trial. She came through excellent. I have the hairs standing up on my body saying this though my heart was calm and steady laying in my bunk listening and feeling Clio take a regular gale beating for 72 hours.

On his return, Tom is working on a painting, gift to Jim Winter, a fellow sailor, who helped immensely in Saint Johns, Newfoundland while we prepared for our crossing. Jim, a radio broadcaster, won an ACTRA, a Canadian award for television/radio excellence. He won it in 1978 for a radio piece he did called 'Birthed Swiler'. The painting is derived from a photo snapped by a newspaper reporter at the Saint Johns airport as Jim arrived back from the ceremonies. It shows his 4 year old daughter clutching the award that looks like a dolly.

Both ship encountered difficulty in staying on course. Adams took 78 days. Clio took 80 days both going at the same time of year. Adams, a master diariest, noted the weather and position. Read his one liners here:

The passage took 13 days. We’ll be getting about 120nm a day. Using .4 gallons an hour when motoring but there will be no motoring on the next leg until we get within three hundred miles from land. The North Atlantic passage could take the whole month of August.

We made it through the Canal. A wonderful trip through the canal. Brings back memories of many locks during childhood on the Ohio and Kentucky Rivers. Now salt water!

Tuesday, April 25, 2023 starts Tom's two week stay in the yard finishing the mast rebuild and prepare the boat for launching in May. Irene came for the first week. It was just the two of us!

For 3 years during the time of the voyage Tom would record a virtual trip to Russia following the weather and contacting harbors along the way.

Tom's sailing page Stories of 4 Atlantic crossings, boat rebuild, sailing on the Ohio River and links to PDFs and videos

Taking advantage of the great acoustics of the Off Ludlow Gallery, Jeff penned a ditty.

Sailing to Saint Petersburg
Intro
I'd like to dedicate this song to all those folks that are sailing a sailboat over to Russia. Sometime in the not too distant future. Don’t got to set a date. I 'm sure you'll get there.

They say he stood about, seven foot high. Peter the Great was, great big guy.
He could march down any street.
Yeh, he could march down any street.

We ain't seen the likes of him. We ain’t seen the likes of him.
Never and never and never, forever again. No we ain't seen the likes of him.

There we go. Send that to Russia. Make that kinda like our peace offering. You know what I’m saying.

Took the advice of Bruce Jones, local expert, and suspended the engine where it is to be and took measurements.

Story of putting a new engine in a 32' Bayfield on Lake Erie at Port Clinton, Ohio. No sailing for two and a half years on the Bayfield. We sailed on the Ohio in a 19’ pocket cruiser out of the Ohio River Launch Club in Cincinnati. Going up for a week at a time install the engine & Caphorn Self Steering device for two and a half years.

17 meg complete information on the engine install. A tedious document from the blogs. Starts with the end.

Complete information on the CapHorn self sterning including a Raymarine tiller stick to allow the device to steer under power to a compass heading.

Sung with a few lyric changes to go with Captain Eric Forsyth's book about 50 years of cruising on Fiona, a 42' Westsail, of which Tom Lohre was on board 215 days of them.

It's there I spied an buxom girl A-looking all forlorn, And away, my Johnnie boys, We're all bound to go! "Oh, good morning, Capt. Eric," "Good morning, my girl," said he.

"Have you got a solid ship to carry me across the sea?" And away, my Johnnie boys, We're all bound to go! "Oh, yes I have a Westsail, She's called the Ms. Fiona";

"She sails away at break of day, She sails to-day for Rodney Bay." And away, my Johnnie boys, We're all bound to go! "Oh, will you take me to Rodney Bay When she sails away at break of day?"

"I want to marry a Yankee boy, And I'll cross the sea no more." And away, my Johnnie boys, We're all bound to go!

Inspired after a month sailing the coast of Maine to paint the blight of the Right Whale.
The traditional series in the Dutch manner depicts a known whale and lobster buoy.

2018 Crossing

All paintings except "Fiona & The Whale" on display in the Clifton Market Window Box, 319 Ludlow Ave; Cincinnati OH 45220

The 387 page journal starts off with a Image / Caption chapter of the complete voyage followed by lengthy day by day notes, images and thoughts. The kind of sailing book he likes to read.

I learned ocean crossings crewing on Eric Forsyth's 42' Westsail. At 90 he is tapering off. Chuck and I sailed in 2019 on his yearly Maine sail. He still is planing a fall Maine sail. I went on the 5 month second leg of his 2018 European loop, the last one.

Paintings now in the Clifton Market Window Box Gallery, a collection of new and old work. The old work will be auctioned off on EBTH soon.

Painting done on return from the 2016 Crossing, Oil on board, 12” x 16”, September 25, 2016

Always when you get back from a Atlantic crossing you are changed a little. You see the times on board as being topsy turfy. Tom wanted to be able to continue to manipulate the paint on canvas over months using a medium of castor oil mixed with powdered pigment. The process was not what it was cracked up to be and started to congeal too early. Tom is still looking to meet a paint expert.

Tom was in the process of moving out of New York City after twenty years in the Village. He had met the love of his life and they did not want to live in the City because they had a good job where they were. Hopefully it was Tom’s hometown. While making the transition he would take the 18 hour train from Cincinnati to New York City that ran meticulously through Virginia, DC, Philly and finally Penn Station while nursing a thermos of coffee and Bourbon. This painting was done from life on Sixth Avenue. For years Tom painted on the street in the Village but always with no one in the paintings. Now he took the extra step to place a well wrought figure in the painting. The series was not so successful, a few went for market price but the majority never hit their mark.

Cincinnati Roebling Suspension Bridge with Reclining Woman I, 20" x 36", Melted Crayola crayons on paper, January 1, 2023

Cincinnati Roebling Suspension Bridge with Reclining Woman II, 20" x 36", Melted Crayola crayons on paper, January 15, 2023

You can have this image put on numerous items from coffee mugs to beach towels at Fine Art America.

Cincinnati Roebling Suspension Bridge III, 20" x 36", Melted Crayola crayons on paper, February 1, 2023

Cincinnati Roebling Suspension Bridge IV, 20" x 36", Melted Crayola crayons on paper, February 1, 2023

This next painting is proving to be a little more difficult. The focus areas need to be painting with deft and skill. The manner allows only limited overpainting. Combine that with the simple nine color palette makes it a challenge. Onward to another suspension bridge painting. This one with both stadiums lit up flanking the Freedom Center, making the starry night the crown and the reflecting water the dress. After like forever, I wrestled this painting to the ground. It's done enough to have a good look. Will be contemplating adjustments over the next several days. Bound to attempt another. The nine color palette will have to go. Painting with a restrictive palette should be because those are the colors of that time of day or night not because it's some made up system of values touching base with the spectrum. Suspension IV, 36" x 20", Crayola crayons melted on paper

Finally finished the new technique. Instead of melting Cray-pas oil pastels Tom switched over to Crayon brand crayons to get a more transparent color. In the light colors you still needed a little opaque white to make them usable. Still mixing up the special colors using a hot plate and a small dish. Instead of sucking the hot wax into a brass tube, you pour it into a mini silicone ice cube tray with the partitions cut out to make a trough. Crayon wax will not let you extrude them out of a brass tube. They get very stiff and the wax locks the tubes. As long as the work is large, the special colored crayons work perfectly, melting them on paper with a heat gun. The paper absorbs the wax and leaves the color looking like a brush stroke. A little mixing can be done and over painting is difficult but not impossible. It’s better to apply the right color in the right spot the first time.

Painting with wax instead of oil might be a stretch. Tom has always been fascinated with wax, even burning himself when he was a kid. He started melting wax when he created a painting machine. The painting machine needed a great stroke and he came up with melting especially mixed oil pastels on a hot surface. The machine produced 10 paintings, did not sell one and cut its ear off. Tom has gone on to use the technique because it is great in a hotel room, the smell is nothing as bad as oil paint. It dries immediately and you can carry everything you need in a small box. The normal person would think it’s oil. Starting on a new series of such work, he worked at revamping the formula to make the colors transparent. Crayola Crayons are transparent and with a little help with opaque Cray-pas white in the light colors, it is superior to Cray-pas oil pastels or any oil pastel. Oil pastels are too opaque. To get that fantastic surface you need transparency. Now to discover the new subject. Tom always advises students to paint Cincinnati’s Suspension bridge and Fountain Square. They always sell and you can learn at the same time. This time he’s taking his own advice, producing new work for the window box gallery on Ludlow Avenue part of Clifton Market across from the Esquire Theater. He’s throwing in the Esquire Theater as another iconic Cincinnati image you can paint over and over except this time they all will have a reclining woman to spice things up.

Ed Hicks as Van Gogh is a labor of love for both the artist and patron. Ed thought long and hard about the commission. Tom was excited to paint a Van Gogh of Van Gogh replacing him with Ed. Years earlier Tom made a splash replacing heads in paintings in the MET. Ed wrote, "Tom's work is as masterful as it is inspired. The oil portrait he painted for me many years ago embodies a depth rarely seen in such a work - and the eyes continue to watch me, looking through me, seeing across the ages."

John Edward Hicks, 68, of Latonia, KY passed away on Friday, December 24, 2021. He was an English Instructor with the University of Cincinnati and a member and music director at West Cincinnati Presbyterian Church. Ed was an accomplished pianist, an author and a human rights activist. He was preceded in death by his parents: Philip and Vera Hicks. Ed is survived by his partner of 25 years: Mitchell Scott; sister: Pamela (Albert) McQueen; niece: Kelsey McQueen and nephew: Scott McQueen. A celebration of Ed's life will be scheduled for a later date. Connley Brothers Funeral Home, 11 East Southern Avenue, Covington (Latonia), KY is serving the family. Memorials are suggested to the West Cincinnati Presbyterian Church, 1708 Baymiller Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45214. Online condolences may be expressed on Facebook or at www.connleybrothersfuneralhome.com

Proposal to have the Clifton Cow Jumping over the Moon in Mount Storm placed on a wall, billboard size on Ludlow Avenue

339 Ludlow Ave., Rosson Apartments, Ray Richie, Unique Campus Rentals, owner, office on McMillian near Starbucks

Looking to have this 8" x 10" oil on canvas of the Clifton Cow Jumping Over the Moon in Mount Storm Park outputted on vinyl and applied to one of two possible walls flanking the Plaza between Upside Cafe and Clifton Barbers on Ludlow Avenue.

Above are images of what it should look like, click on them while on the web site to see a larger image. The sign will be about 20’ x 25’, a field measurement will be needed. The cost will include putting up and taking down in a year or when it breaks. The way of fastening should be grommets placed into a reinforced seam. If the grommets meets a mortar joint a screw will be used to attach the sign to the brick wall. The sign price should be the lowest without laminating or varnishing.

Clifton Cow Bath Towel, $32.50, 32” x 64”
Dry yourself off with a luxuriously soft bath towel from brushed micro fiber with a 100% cotton back for extra absorption. The front of the towel has the image printed on it and the back is white cotton. Machine wash and tumble dry with low heat.

Clifton Cow Tote Bag, $39.50, 24” x 16”, white, crafted with a soft, spun ploy poplin fabric and features double-stiched seams, 1” thick cotton handles for over the shoulder carrying.

You can also have it printed on canvas, throw pillow, duvet cover, shower curtain, tapestry, fleece blanket, coffee mug, yoga mat, puzzle and many other surfaces.

Fountain Square LXXII #72, Oil pastel on metal, 8" x 10", Monday, February 1, 2021, Commission

Three views of Fountain Square LXX, Glow, Oil pastel, 12" x 16", Wednesday, January 14, 2015, these three images are the same painting

Nelson Sullivan was one of the original vloggers. In the 80s' he would drag around various gigantic video cameras shooting whatever he came into contact with. Slowly the equipment got smaller and smaller. Here he is in his mode, shooting walks about the city. The theme was to go on a gallery walk prepared by Tom Lohre, friend and also Nelson's portraitist. The 5 Ninth Avenue Project was started by his dear friends Robert Coddington and David Goldman after Nelson's sudden demise. It was a labor of love and we owe the world to them for allowing Nelson to live on in perpetuity.

The real story of the gallery walk is to go around the city seeing all the Kevin Larmee Murals, ending up at the gallery featuring his work.

People
Ronda Granger, RuPaul, Flloyd, Tom Lohre,
Clive, Dr. Tiga, Albert Crudo, David Darumple
Places
5 Ninth, Greenwich Village, Jane West Hotel, Outside J West,
Tom Lohre's apartment, Lucia Gallery, Clare's studio, Circle Gallery, Mary Boone Gallery

00:01:46 - 00:10:55 Ronda walking to Floyd’s apartment 505 Jane Hotel to get Ru and Floyd. Visit the tower room & rooftop.

00:10:55 - 00:21:00 Ronda and Nelson explore outside on the street while Ru & Felicia put on makeup. Ru & Felicia come down in full drag. Walk with Ronda and Nelson walk to Tom’s apartment, walk by bridal shop, street scenes. Inside Tom’s apartment are many of his heroic full size portraits.

00:21:00 - 00:29:02 Walk to Clive’s. Nelson makes a pay phone call. Visit Clive’s apartment.& art.

00:29:02 - 00:38:59 Back on the street to West Broadway, Go to Luica Gallery, a collection of remade masterpieces with modern objects. Ru & Flloyd smoking. Dr. Tim’s artwork. Group on street. Circle Gallery with Tesla-esque globes of static electricity filaments, cool/shots, see art by Piet Bekaert, Capotondi & Korbanka, Ru walks by Asian tourists, more walking - street scenes

00:38:59 00:48:00 Visit Art Gallery Building: Eric Fischl at Mary Boone Gallery, Piet Mondrian - The Wall Works, 1943-44’, Carpenter / Hochman Gallery, Walk on street, Rhonda leaves, Meet Sharon Woolums, First Broadway Floor Gallery, in elevator, Katrina Mann, photographer, go to 1st floor gallery - cannot tape, on street, metal artworks on street by auto shop, Flloyd investigates, fun walk around shot of Ru, Flloyd & Tom

00:48:00 - 00:54:39 Larmee poster about his show at Avenue B Gallery, Schellmont & Kloser Gallery, go upstairs to gallery to see a lot of Warhol prints, walk to new gallery w/ metal art object art, Felicia eats a banana, out on street, wall posters on street, Heller Gallery off Mercer, pretty glass sculptures

00:54:39 - 00:59:00 Nelson to Ru, “Let’s go to the East Village.” 1st in a series of Kevin Larmee’s wall posters. We will go to all the locations listed in the gallery guide. Good shot of Larmee flyer on the telephone pole. Pan of Rupaul, great shot of Ru w/ $200 imposed on him, Ron Rezek Gallery, Gabrielle Bryers Gallery, street shots of group
00:59:00 - 01:06:48 Flloyd poses w/ guy Larmee mural under flyers, rips posters off wall
revealing the rest of the Larmee poster, fortune teller mannequin, pinking shears on building ad, colorful old juke box, stone windows, street shots, cars on street, another Larmee mural poster with one, more street shots, green metal angles poking out of building wall, Felicia meets a friend, fun spinning w/ Nelson camera on street grates, Adam Purple footsteps on sidewalk,
Walk bu Tower Records, sidewalk vendors

01:06:48 - 01:13:49 Another Larmee mural, street vendors/shots, great 4 minute walk showing city life, Felicia points out where her boyfriend works, meet friend, Nelson buys sodas for all, Nelson makes phone call

01:13:49 - 01:33:00 Meet Albert Crudo in car with David Darumple driving, group gets in convertible, Felicia hams for camera, another Larmee mural, walk by Klaus Nomi’s apartment, Meet Allison, director, at Gallery B showing Larmee’s artwork, Latino’s berate Ru, back in the car, pass the Limelight, driving around the city at night, talking in the car, Albert had dinner with Lou Reed last night, collect money for gas at Gaseteria, admire Atlanta Peachtree Festival poster

01:33:00 - 01:39 Too noisy at 42nd island to hear sound sculpture, listening to Iggy Pop, dishing on what famous person you had dinner with, Felicia talks about applying makeup, Thanks to York for driving

Keith Richards: “There’s something about being restricted that opens up the possibilities. With a synthesizer, you can do anything you like. I don’t want to do anything I like! I wanna do something that ties me down, where I can manoeuvre. So I started playing in G without the slide, and started to find other chords and realise this was a really good vehicle for me. Especially ’cause Brian had just… croaked, it was a period where there was no other guitar player and I was trying to figure out what the hell to do next. Then I started to work with Mick Taylor and we really hit our stride, Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, then we had to move out; Exile On Main St. we worked together all in one joint.”
“Especially making Exile…, I found this the guitar can do loads of things. It was there I really started appreciating the guitar. I thought: it’s got so many possibilities, and I’m just tinkering with it. And I still am. But it was there that I realised that this wasn’t a tool that I could master, it was something that I could spend my whole life doing.”
Keith Richards onstage during a sound check, Denmark, 1970.Credit...Jan Persson

December 1, 2020 Started series of famous people. Discovered that the 4" x 7" size is too small, better to paint full size on a 12" x 16".

December 13, 2020
Put the 4" x 7" painting of Keith in the freezer with the paints. Seems like the surface is starting to stiffen. Continuing to adjust the face. Adding darker and lighter lines. Keeping the variegation up, meaning to keep it lively and not repetitive.

Past the first pass stage now it’s on to thinking about what the painting needs. Recently in the past spending the hour and a half laying awake at night thinking about how to engineer a doghouse for a boat. The time seemed to be made for such thinking. It is just as good thinking about what the painting needs. Laser focus on getting to the core of the identity of the person, in this case Keith Richards.

December 16, 2020
Continuing to move areas to make the painting look more like Keith. Slowly going through all the facial features to pinpoint his character. A tedious process but the castor medium is still fluid. Stopped putting the painting in the freezer to establish the drying time. When working on paintings that cannot be put in a freezer the time will be needed to know.

Adapt the portrait to emulate the image, the brooding eyes & pale complexion. Going through all the images is overwhelming as is going through the facial features. The fluid nature of the medium allows complete transformation of the a la prima technique. Instead of waiting for the paint to dry you add additional complementary paint to change the color or just scrap it off and start over. It’s a very easy and difficult thing to do and best done while a little tipsy. Making big strokes and finishing them in the morning after a sleep off.

December 29, 2020
Been looking at Keith on the easel for two weeks and now the paint has solidified. Just a start. Keith will be depicted in his full regalia, on stage with guitar painted full size on a 30" x 40" canvas.

Books on Face Reading
Amazing Face Reading, Mac Fuller, J.D.
Face Reading, Chi An Kuei
The Face Reader, Patrician McCarthy

Been looking at Keith on the easel for two weeks and now the paint has solidified. Will go on to frame.

Sharon and Hillary in front of the Clfton Market Window Box Gallery featuring Shrine Portraits.

Victims Killed by Stray Bullets
Locations of gun violence especially those killed by stray bullets.

Work continues on updating the portraits placed at the shrines of the fallen around Cincinnati.
Adding at least one every year to coincide with Saad Goshen's SOS Show of Social Peace and Justice.
The first one was placed in 2012 where Angela Grayson was killed by a stray bullet at Forest and Burnet.
Down the road is Buchie Wood's shrine portrait out front of the Cold n Quick at Vine and Forest.
He was cut down with a stray bullet.
Tom is always looking for more 24" wide realtor yard signs to hold the vinyl sticker of the art. Click To Contact if you have an realtor yard sign to donate.
The original framed 8" x 10" art, given to the family.
All portraits are painted in a special technique of melting nine oil pastel colors with a heat gun.
Tom invented the technique for a Lego painting machine.

State of the painting on April 7, 2020. Taking forever to finish. Now it's on to Irene's makeup and to apply the lace.

Ms. LeBarón, 20" x 24", Oil pastel melted on gessoed board, December 2019, $250
Painted from an image in the New York Times showing the grieving members of the ambush of a caravan of Mormons that took place in Mexico.

Cincinnati's Esquire Theater VII, 12" x 16", November 14, 2019, Oil pastel melted on metal.
The Esquire series represents the eternal nature of small-town America. The scene could be any town with an old theater. This one was saved by the citizens and is now thriving. Tom painted the work from across the street in the dining area of the new Clifton Market. Like the Esquire Theater the store was going to be demolished but the citizens banded together, bought the building and returned a grocery store to the community.
Esquire VII was started in the Clifton Market dining area. Working on a sketch of the composition. A year and a half went by before finishing in 2019. The series moves on with the works now being from Clifton Market Café. The distance to the Esquire increased brings out the theater. The fake gaslight may not be in this position. The power lines are missing. You can’t read the movies on the marquee. They were: The Last Dalai Lama, Little Hours and Crown Heights.
Clifton, a white donut hole neighborhood in Cincinnati where the population is 50% black. Surrounded by poor black neighborhoods, Clifton retained its whiteness because of its proximity to the University of Cincinnati and downtown holding on to the legacy of seven wealthy merchant estates establish in the farmland three miles from Cincinnati, bordering the canal on two sides.
The old gaslights proliferate the streets and Tom took advantage of the quaint nature to execute old time impressionist’s views with wet streets or snow covered roads in the manner of the French masters Antoine Blanchard, Edouard Cortes and Luigi Loir. Though this same manner can be had for a song from the import painters in a handsome frame, Tom wanted to capture his own neighborhood.

Shown at Off Ludlow Gallery, 3408 Ormond St, Cincinnati 45220, Hours: Fri & Sat 4-8, 513-201-7153

Being a Meat Market Pioneer - Fixing the Plumbing at 5 Ninth Avenue in 1988, video by Nelson Sullivan

Cartoons

New cartoons from college days. NKU spring 1971 cartoons for the "Northerner." Tom was managing editor and cartoonist for three years.

Dressed for Carnival

Watercolor on paper, 5" x 7", Completed August 11th,1998

14 Alzheimer's Patient Cartoons

She suffered from Alzheimer's for nineteen years.

These cartoons are an effort to look on the bright side of a difficult situation remembering strange behaviors taken aside may be humorous.

In 1980 while painting one impressionist work after another day after day in the open air, Tom thought he could make a machine that painted. In 2003 Tom created that machine out of the Lego Mindstorm Invention System. Much like a x,y printer with eight colors. Tom settled on melting oil pastels on a hot surface creating a beautiful stroke. A 16” x 20” painting had 4163 dots of color and took 18 hours to create. The robot created ten portraits that did not sell. He eventually sold one and the person did not recognize it was a portrait but bought it for the colors. The Lego machine forced Tom to simplify his color pallet. After numerous combinations, Tom started to hone in on a set of nine colors, each color doing double duty as a color and a value going from light to dark.
Tom slowly started using the technique for himself starting with a series of derived oil paintings from his earlier fountain paintings. Using a limited number of colors just like the Lego machine, Tom started to hone the colors into a set group. The initial paintings used strong basic colors like red, yellow, white, light violet, dark violet, light blue and dark blue. He continued to use his current manner of transparent color on a scrapped gessoed surface. Letting the tinted varnish have its full effect on the very smooth surface. His medium was 1/2 stand oil, 1/2 Damar varnish with .5% oil of cloves to retard drying.

170314 Having to trouble shoot a Dell Inspiron 1100 not booting up cleanly. An alarm goes off and it goes to safe boot mode. I am running the original Home version of XP without updates and RoboLab 2.94. Keeping the 2007 working original program until new application arm is working. Side arm needs to come in and heat up surface where oil pastel dot is applied and move aside for the application wheel to rotate to the color and move down to apply the dot. Thinking it will be a side arm where the heating box flips down, moves into dot area for allotted time then out.

Working on a complicated four month long painting makes for mixing things up a bit. Herman Melville and William Adolphe Bouguereau would be in their studios all day and others did not really know what they did in there, Tom's wife thinks the same thing. It is fun to think they were working all the time on the work but they were not unlike Tom, answering letters, cleaning, working on peripheral things; spending a lot of time working on refining the craft, researching, making new devices and procedures that make the work fun and easier. After years of wanting to make videos of painting it was not until now Tom set up a technique to do just that. It came together when he found a contraption to hold documents while typing, similiar to a desk top lamp that clamps on the table and allows you to move it all around. It makes it possible to sneak into the painting space with a USB cable video camera.

In painting a complicated work the question comes up, “Is it worth it?”
Working to duplicate the old masters, taking time to study and produce, is the resource which is bottomless. Money may be in short supply but there is always plenty of time. Giving the work all the time it needs to achieve success is the least the artist can do. Material goods may be in short supply but never to the level of preventing work. No one askes how long did it take? They think the artist took as long as he wanted.
If an artist is attempting to emulate an old master work wouldn’t that mean he would spend as long as he needed? The artist is not setting the standard, the standard is already set.
Though it takes six months to paint such a work and the payment is a fraction of the time spent, is this a good use of the artist’s time? He enjoys matching the level of work and spending hours in front of a charming painting, albeit to him; not unlike sitting in a museum.
Tom learned that the painter he is emulating, Jan van der Heyden, created paintings for the market. He was an engineer and inventor of gas street lighting and firefighting equipment. Tom was disillusioned at the painters work, creating paintings that seemed fads in Dutch society. It may have well been a fad at the time and he was encouraged and rewarded to produce as many as he could. The resulting paintings do not have a heart and soul in it as Tom understands. Tom searched for personal commissions Heyden produced that had intimacy but found none. Though known to paint every brick and leaf, resorting to making a stamp you could apply to the wet paint to set up the painting of leaves and bricks, Heyden’s work has failed to inspire Tom though he has been a vehement follower for twenty years.
In the end, painting “Evanswood Home”, Tom feels the only take away is to continue to paint in transparent medium since it gives the painting an extra oeuvre. In the future Tom seeks to use transparent mediums with phosphorescent paint.

Christmas 2008 Helen XIV, ink on paper board, 8" x 10", December 25, 2009, Portraits, Drawings

Richard T Farmer, Oil on board, Portraits, 12" x 16", April 18th, 2008, Richard Farmer, Founder & Chairman of the Board of Cintas Corporation spoke at Xavier University on April 18th, 2008 as part of the Distinguished Speakers Series, "10 Important Experiences Over 50 Years in Business."

Rhett Fire & Mel Odem, 5' x 4', oil on canvas, July 1st, 1983, Portraits, Commission

Helen, 36" x 40", oil on canvas, painted for the 2006 Tall Stacks Celebration in Cincinnati

Sydney wears a tutu from the Cincinnati Ballet. She is painted as an Ice Fairy in "The Nutcracker." Commission

Your face in a masterpiece Pick any painting in the Cincinnati Art Museum and Tom will paint your face in it. Photo: United Press International 1979.Portraits

Home Portraits

Bahamian Home, 20" x 16", Watercolor, 1995

THE GREAT TOMASO

The bicycle has it’s own colorful propeller and balloons attached to a bar that encircles the driver and passenger. As they ride, many times they leave the ground.The pushcart is the circus floor for the small Art Machines

Chad Johnson, 16" x 20", September 2007, Wax on aluminum sheet
This is the second painting done with the Lego robot assistant, "Artisto." The face is a Bengal receiver. The face is set in the mask of a tiger. Tom used strong colors to accent the eight colors available in the robot assisted process.Irene, Oil pastel on foil, 16" x 20", August 2007

The first painting done by "Artisto" using glow in the dark colors makes use of a strong combination of colors for a powerful graphic effect. The sky comes to life in the dark. Two different glow in the dark colors, blue and orange, where used for the background.

Shown at
January 2008 at Sitwell's Coffee House, 324 Ludlow Ave., Cincinnati OH 45220, 2008 Show Brochure

April 18 to May 18, 2008 at Visual History Gallery, Mike Wilger, owner, 1989 Madison Road Cincinnati, OH 45202, mwilger@fuse.net, 513-871-6065, Visual History Gallery

Click to begin enjoying your home even more during cold dry days with an indoor waterfall.

Your Children Can Decorate Your Home

Learn how Tom supplies materials and guidance for you or your children to paint.