About Bob Sullivan
Bob was born in Princeton, NJ in 1952. He attended Princeton Day School, Berkshire School, and holds a bachelor’s degree in fine art from Ithaca College he majored in Fine Art. He majored in Communication Design at Pratt Institute.
Bob moved to NYC in 1977 and worked for Children’s Television Workshop, Foote Cone and Belding and Gannett Outdoor as an Art Director. His accounts included Sesame Street, Nike, Smirnoff and RJR Nabisco.
In 1999 he moved to the eastern end of Long Island where he earned a US Coast Guard Captain’s license and now owns a sailing/fishing business in Sag Harbor.
He is a member of Artists Alliance of East Hampton, the Southampton Arts Association, The Wednesday Group, Thirty Squared and he participates and teaches in numerous plein air workshops and seminars.
Recent travels have taken him to Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Italy, Maine, and Argentina. His next plein air destination is Kuaui, HI.
Bob’s painting style is referred to as natural realism. The True North Gallery of Noyac NY represents his painting.
One Man Shows
Salon Xavier – Sag Harbor, NY11/2010 Flora & Fauna
The Present Day Club – Princeton, NJ 5/2012 Chasing the Light
Present Day Club – Princeton, NJ 9/2013An Easel in the Sand
Salon Xavier – Sag Harbor NY2/2014Chasing the Light
Present Day Club – Princeton, NJ10/2015Chasing the Light
Salon Xavier – Sag Harbor, NY2/2016An Easel in the Sand
Amagansett Free Library – Amagansett, NY9/2016An Easel in the Sand
The Nassau Club – Princeton, NJ1/2018Capturing the Elusive
True North Gallery – Noyac, NY6/2018On the Water
Selected Group Shows
2012Guild Hall Annual Members Show
2013Southampton Cultural Center S. A. A. Members Show
2014Ashawagh Hall Artist Alliance E. H. Member’s Show
2015 Quogue LibraryThirty Squared
2015 Ashawagh HallLove & Passion
2016 Watermill MuseumThirty Squared
2016Golden PearThe Wednesday Group
2017 Ashawagh HallAAEH Members Show
2017The Nature ConservancyThe Wednesday Group
2018Grenning GalleryLocal Artists on the Water
2018Southampton Cultural Center S. A. A. Members Show
2019Ashawagh HallFriends of Springs Improvement Society
Artists Statement
As an artist, Sullivan is looking for truth through simplicity with an emphasis on natural color and a strong reliance on accurate rendering. The stroke of the brush, the weight of the paint, the juxtaposition of values, hues, mass and line combine to allow the viewer to join, in exploring the artist’s vision of his truth.
In describing his vision as an artist, Sullivan says: “A photograph is able to capture a particular moment with a certain amount of realism, and it’s difficult to compete with a camera for an accurate two-dimensional representation of what one’s eye perceives. Art, on the other hand, attempts to capture the magic and personality of any given moment in any given place. I also like to play with memory which has a tendency to solidify and fix itself in ways which fit into a convenient personal narrative – I like the idea of exploring the more complex, less accessible aspects of memory as I paint old, familiar places from my youth and as I paint a given landscape location under different conditions.”
Leonardo da Vinci likened vision to time and for an analogy compared it to the flow of river water. While a constant presence, vision is always different from instant to instant. The truth of a photograph is to freeze time whereas the process of painting requires observation, analysis and selection from the flow of vision as it passes in endless variation.
Email: dizzyfish@mac.com
Website: bobsullivanart.com
Artist Interview