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There it was- a plaster of Paris German Shepherd lying down with his front legs together and its ears up. I stepped up quickly to get it before any of my classmates. It was Art Class in Miss Schmitt's fifth grade class in the Delmar Grade School in Delmar, NY, just southwest of Albany. I painted my shepherd black and dark reddish brown. It never occurred to me that no one had ever seen a dark reddish brown shepherd. My aunt who had a big house in the country had a real shepherd and now at least I would have one to look at. My Mom put it on the hearth in front of the little fireplace in the living room where it looked at a chair for more than twenty-five years I also drew horses- many, many horses- during those early years. But, sometime's passions have to be stored away in the mind's attic for years waiting for a better time. Such was the case for my drawing and painting. Energies and time were consumed in growing up, athletics, scholastics, desperately trying to be cool with the girls and getting into and out of college. "Get a good job with a big company that has benefits," was the advice/command my father gave me. And, as it turned out, I did. Marriage, children, corporate moves, divorce, college educations, a second marriage, a move from New Jersey to Florida and retirement were among the minor distractions from the pursuit of a career painting plaster of Paris dogs. And, what about the art in the mind's attic? Well, about twenty-eight years after the shepherd took up residence on the hearth and a third of the way through the distractions, I was in the midst of a career-broadening assignment in Buffalo, NY. (Not many go to Buffalo for career broadening. It's an indication of some, but limited, potential.) Winters are long, very long, between Lakes Erie and Ontario. There gets to be a weight on your shoulders with the cold, snow and day-after-day grayness. Cabin fever reached pandemic levels in March and April. During a vacation the previous summer in the Carolinas, a thunderstorm forced us to take shelter in, of all places, an art gallery. The walls were covered with beautiful landscape and seascape paintings. Just as I started to search the attic and began thinking I could paint like that someday, the storm passed, the sun came out and it was back to the ocean. One particularly gray day in late cabin fever, I went to a nearby arts and crafts store and returned home with an acrylics starter set, brushes, the minimum requirement for an easel, canvases and a couple of Walter Foster's "How to paint..." publications. The kids had summarily abandoned the model train platform that took up a good portion of the basement but there was one corner where I was able to hook up an overhead light. A new beginning. That was thirty-one years ago. Hard to believe. Soon after, I was transferred to New Jersey. Occasionally wedged in between business travel, ice and field hockey games,baseball games, community participation, school and social events were evening classes in oil and acrylic painting. The County Arts Association had outdoor and indoor shows where my juried in art was on display. I was part of lobby displays in AT&T's Network Headquarters in Bedminster, NJ and Nestle's Regional Headquarters (at the time) in East Hanover. I won the Silver ribbon at the Clinton Mill Historical Site (Clinton, NJ) twenty fifth anniversary celebration. In 1996, we moved to Florida. After several years of business consulting, the art moved out of the attic for good. Taking lessons, displaying in galleries, teaching drawing and painting to home schooled children were and have been the norm. Highlights
2008 Hibiscus Home for Battered Children Juried Art Show (two paintings out of 700 entered) 2006 Artist-of-the-Month Marsh Rabbit Gallery, Jensen Beach, Fl 2006 Agora Gallery, (SOHO, NYC) Spring Show (four paintngs) 2006 Elliott Museum display, Stuart, Fl 2005-2005 Hibiscus Annual Charity Art Auction, Stuart, Fl Numerous art website displays
2007- present www.rmhinkelmanart.com
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Robert M Hinkelman
LANDSCAPES, SEASCAPES, WILDLIFE PAINTINGS
Stuart Florida
Artist-of-the-Month- The Arts Arena Delray Beach, Fl
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artspan is contemporary art