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

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.

Mother Daughter VIII, Almost final state, 24" x 30", Tuesday, March 23, 2021, Portraits, Figure, Traditional

Finally finishing this albatross. Started in 2014, just did not have the strength to finish it. It's like the plumber who always has leaky pipes at home.

The image that started the painting. In keeping with the formal method, photos were collected since the subjects were older now.

The sketch was made for the size of the canvas, 24” x 30”. Fitting in all the elements was the focus.

Every painting gets composed in Poser, an electronic mannequin program. You can clearly see the figures composed in this image are duplicated in the painting.

Painting was started in earnest using the new medium of powdered pigment mixed with castor oil. The paint took about a month before it started to set up and dry.

Mother Daughter VIII, Second state, 24" x 30", Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Things ground to a halt because of the complicated steps to finish the work. It was not unlike the plumber who always has leaky pipes at home. A commission, even a small one, drives the incentive to finish.

Wednesday February 17, 2021 work started anew. After two miniature portraits the full size seems like a walk in the park though the work is dry. Using black castor oil in the hopes just by trying all the castor oils there might be one that works, meaning to hold the pigment on the surface, dry very slowly, 25 days or more, not slide, though some minglingly is important to keep blending by itself but still holding an edge on a single fine hair brush stroke. The toughest part is not having transparent colors while painting over with a lighter color, avoided like the plague. Removing some of the old paint with a solvent revealing the scraped gessoed smooth as a baby's bottom, gessoing over the surface would not be necessary. Irene’s face is dead on but Helen's left eye needs to be moved. Seven years it took to get back to finishing such a portrait. In the old days you would have a commission and getting even a few dollars was motivation for spending hours working on the transparent surface. On Tuesday, November 25, 2014 Tom just could not go on to finish it. Getting back to the work, the edges need to be addressed. Close observation shows that all the tricks of the form making trade need to be used even in the light and shadow form takes place by the lightening or darkening of the area of color.

Bouguereau would laugh at my attempts. Demanding I start all over and do it right in just as much time. No manner of adjusting the dried paint can come within 50% of acceptable. But still Tom goes on to finish. A nice 8 year hiatus from formal portrait painting. Not really, Tom almost finished Solomon & The Rose of Sharon.

Rose of Sharon, 4' x 3', oil on canvas,
November 1, 2017
Irene went on a Treasa road trip and Tom put this back on the easel.

In 2011 the reclining figure was gessoed out and the bed linen was painted, retouching the Calla Lilies, removing the drum and chalice.

Taking forever to finish. Now it's on to Irene's makeup and to apply the lace. The lace will be rolled on using a rubber roller with lace glued to it. Once rolled in white paint it will apply a careful delicate lace pattern over the camisole.

Now slowly the reworking goes on. Every aspect hashed over until it just passes muster of what fine oil painting is about. Mostly that means making everything random and effortless looking. Never making a brush stroke without all the meaning it can have. As you refine the almost haphazard looking strokes into a face it becomes more likable but it should have been likable at the get go though many times it is not.

In a reworked painting, dealing with old paint is the worst. Painting over something to make it right is often a nightmare.

This painting left large areas filled in unfinished and now all the unfinished parts have to be addressed with new paint and edges. A most difficult thing to do when you rely on a “a la prima transparent method”.

February 27, 2021
Work progresses slowly. Irene has started commenting on the progress. Helen is at college but did chime in today with an “Okay. That’s my hair cut back then.” It’s a little long here, which is good and the verigation of the hair is excellent since it looks combed but is ruffled enough to make it a great image to work from. Referring back to Bougereau constantly makes for evening out the flesh color. Making only the form shaping simple but now abandoning the personality of the model. If it looks good in an image taken of the work in progress, it may be on the way to being finished. Never is the form abandoned when fine details of everything are formed with transparent castor oil with powdered pigment against a polished coating of gesso. Removing the paint is an easy manner of whipping the surface with a color ball touched with a stripper. Then following up with a whip of castor oil to stop the removal. The old paint becomes liquid again in a most strange manner. Maybe a way to reconstitute the dried castor oil and powdered pigment will become apparent soon.

A long time ago someone mentioned a passage in Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. It was about a master artist painting with slow deliberate strokes where everything was perfect. This is the stroke to be achieved. As I work through the hair of Helen, all I’m looking for is a master transparent stroke that holds as much reality as possible. The fun thing is that the stroke has a tremendous possibility of meaning everything and nothing at the same time when the mind fills in the blank like believability in the movies.
A slow stroke with a loaded large sable with the right color in the right place slowly moving creating a final area all at once.

March 3, 2021, Irene’s birthday
Work continues with the background finished using normal oil paint with ½ Damar varnish and ½” stand oil with 1% oil of cloves and Helen’s hair and face with castor oil and powdered pigment which is staying fluid. Next to finish the clothing with the normal medium while continuing the bigger mission. Still have to deal with the imperfections of Irene’s face. May just have to leave it be.

Saturday, March 6, 2021
Have not worked on painting for two days waiting for the courage to recolor Helens face by taking just the right color and stippleing it into the existing color to make the right color. In this case, violet to take the orange out.

Friday, March 12, 2021
Carefully correcting Helen. Looking forward to moving to the mirror. Still wet and perfect.

When you look at the eye above in his painting of the porridge girl you can see it’s finished to the nth degree. In the old days I used to paint with a medium that dried in about 15 days. THis new medium has a funny quality about it that does not sit well with a high degree of finish. It’s close but not close enough. The paint tends to coagulate not allowing to create fine detail.

Studying Bouguereau. He applied this same meticulous procedure to create paintings. He used sketches and plaster casts. He even used paintings to guide his brush. Looking at a painting reveals how to develop form. An image is not good at revealing how to create form.

Figuring out how Bouguereau painted is still a mystery. In this colorized image you can see his brushes were not exceptional. Most were bristle. His medium is a mystery to me. I think he did have various mediums to address the drying time.

Trained under this painting. Need to go visit it and take some more images. It's the fluid transparency that gets me. Does anyone have a Bouguereau "How to" Facebook page?

Are you on Instagram? I Have been posting 60 second videos of the painting on the easel. A work started in 2014! I just did not have the strength to finish it. It's a lot like the plumber who cannot fix his own leaky pipes. Portrait painting is the Mount Everest of painting and when it's to look like someone, the mountain is even higher. But it's on the chopping block and will be done to the best of my ability.

210319
Work continues with severe lack of motivation. Live streaming is making it tolerable. The paint on Helen's face is still wet.

210321
Work is nearing completion on the faces. Now on to touching up the dresses. Using regular oil paints mixed with straight Damar varnish to make the paint to stick to the dried paint. The strange nature of castor oil mixed with powdered pigment creates a slick surface when thoroughly dried.

Finally finishing this albatross. Started in 2014, just did not have the strength to finish it. It's like the plumber who always has leaky pipes at home.

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.

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

"Heave Away My Johnnies" 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 of them. https://yachtfiona.com/ Oh, as I walked down the Landing Stage All on a summer's morn, Heave away, my Johnnies, heave away! 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. Heave away, my Johnnies, heave away! "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"; Heave away, my Johnnies, heave away! "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?" Heave away, my Johnnies, heave away! "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!

Nelson Sullivan's gallery walk with Ronda Granger, Ru Paul, Felicia and Tom Lohre. Shot in the 80's, Nelson made it a habit of shooting theme videos. Tom worked out a line up of galleries and off they went. There is no audio at the end of the video. We were in a gallery showing Kevin Larmee's work. At the time he had huge works on buildings all over Soho. He is still painting in Chicago. You can check out his work on Facebook and larmee.org. Thank you to everyone who made this happen. Dick Richards and David Goldman started posting Nelson's videos on YouTube after he died. When Tom was visiting them, they made a copy of the gallery walk video. Stupid Tom, they left him alone in the studio while they went to do an errand and he turned off the machine after an hour into it. He missed getting the footage of a little known show of Warhol among other gems of the day.

2:21 p.m. April 23, 2020 Jordan Ware was found dead from a gunshot wound at Irving and Forest near the playground between Vine and the Zoo. A print of this portrait will be placed at the site. Tom has many Sidewalk Shrine Portraits all over Cincinnati. A gesture that means a lot to the family and brings hope to a tragedy. The family receives the original art.

Tom is honored to be included in this show with his portrait of Jordan Ware. A victim of gun violence, a 24" x 24" portrait will be placed at Irving and Forest in Avondale.
April 22, 2020 A shooting occurred in Avondale Wednesday afternoon in the 3500 block of Irving Avenue, where they found a man dead at the scene, identified as Jordan Ware, 25.

SOS ART RETROSPECTIVE 2016 - 2020
January 9 - February 27, 2021
Opening Day: Saturday, January 9, 11am - 8pm
Gallery Hours: Kennedy Heights Arts Center
Wednesdays - Fridays 10am - 5pm,
6546 Montgomery Road
Saturdays 11am - 4pm Cincinnati, OH 45213
513-631-4278 www.kennedyarts.org
This Retrospective exhibit consists of a selection of artworks on the themes of peace and justice by 90 Greater Cincinnati artists who had participated in previous annual SOS ART shows between 2016 and 2020.
Co-Curators Vaishnavi Ramanathan and Saad Ghosn selected the works based on their merit of quality and messages for a better world.
The show incudes works shown indoors and works enlarged and printed on large panels displayed outdoors; also a video of the artworks and mini interviews with the participating artists.
A color book documenting the show and including a section for children's related art activities is available free to visitors. Children's activities are also being planned during the duration of the show.

FREE Timed Entry Tickets are available at www.kennedyarts.org or by calling 531-631-4278.

Masks are required.

Please practice social distancing.

Kennedy Heights Arts Center
6546 Montgomery Road
Cincinnati, OH 45213

Invitation
https://sosartcincinnati.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/final-sos-art-retrospective-2016-2020-1.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2CyM3ShHkRz2ZcMtW6L--P0maXKEKWri40Ob8fyuq2LnuozvRXt0iU_98

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

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.
Offered at the Off Ludlow Gallery Christmas Show.

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

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.

Cartoons

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

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.

Tom's friend Saad Goshen publishes a book of poems matched to illustrations. This work is one of those illustrations. Tom lost interest in the work after completing the drawing and palette. Three weeks later he relearned everything he forgot creating figures with watercolor. Some of the staff of Hillary Clinton's Clifton, Cincinnati office played the roles: Caroline Lembright, Umeirra Umy Savani, Elena Saltzman, Radheya Kulkarni, Elena Saltzman, Jordan Thornlow, Jalakoi Solomon and Sean Young . Tom volunteered with them. Picking images of them off their Facebook pages. This incentive made it possible to plow through the work time from January 1 to February 23.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Traditional and Impressionist Paintings in Gold Frames

Dressed for Carnival

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

14 Alzheimer’s Patient Cartoons

2018 Crossing

Cartoons