May day
You know she’s not real, that she only exists on paper. Yet you can almost hear the rustling of her long, blue skirt and see the dust fly as she kicks up her heels and runs down the Old Western street. She’s just one of countless illustrations brought to life by the artistry of Robert Papp.
Chances are you may have seen his art but not realized it. During his 30-year career he’s worked for every major publisher in the U.S. and abroad. His paintings have been featured on the covers of best-selling novels, in children’s books and advertising campaigns. No matter what the genre or subject, he strives to make each illustration a unique work of art that captures the imagination.
Though most of his time is spent working as an illustrator, he recently began painting his own figurative works and still lifes in oil. He paints in the classical realist style and his work is characterized by a high degree of craftsmanship. Done at a more relaxed pace, his fine art paintings are larger in scale and allow more freedom than his commercial art. “I can just get up and walk away if I’m frustrated,” he said.
Returning to fine art was something Rob often contemplated. Four years ago he and a friend, also an illustrator, made a bet. They each bet a case of beer on whoever would enter a painting first in the Phillips’ Mill Art Exhibition in New Hope, PA. Rob did, and his painting, “Study in White,” not only won best of show in 2015, but sold instantly. He’d continue to win awards there for the next four years and remembers enjoying the beer immensely.
Each day he works on his commercial jobs until the afternoon. “Then,” he said, “I put on my smock and paint my fine art until six or seven.” “It sounds like a lot, but the act of painting something for myself to end the day is very satisfying.”
When he approaches a painting he doesn’t have it all figured out at once. His goal is to portray the familiar in exceptional ways, bringing awareness to the simple beauty in the world.
He likes to paint in such a way that the viewer isn’t sure if the subject is from the past or present as in “May Day,” pictured here. There is something timeless about the young girl with cabbage white butterflies hovering around her. We wonder what she’s gazing at in the distance and why the white ribbon is woven through the fence.
Rob’s still lifes are equally as expressive as his figurative work. “A still life can have the same personality as figures,” he said. He’ll often play around with fruits or vegetables until he gets the right composition and waits for late day sun to backlight many of his subjects, magically revealing fine veins in the leaves of vegetables like cabbage and Swiss chard.
His lush depictions of fruits and vegetables are found on the covers of Cooks Illustrated, a bimonthly American cooking magazine. Searching for potential subjects, he’s been known to peruse supermarkets and farmers markets until he finds the perfect specimens.
While he’d prefer working from life, the shelf life of fruits and veggies is short and he typically works from photographs. He photographs his human subjects as well. “Portrait subjects, especially kids, get fidgety surprisingly quickly,” he said.
Color values are the most important element in his painting process. “Things stand out because of what is next to them. For example, flesh tones are really quite gray by themselves, but appear flesh-like because of the light and dark or cool and warm colors around them.”
Rob paints on canvas gessoed onto plywood and tones the surface with burnt umber. He’ll do preliminary sketches on paper and then begins to draw directly on the canvas.
His slow and deliberate technique involves painting in thin layers, almost like watercolor. Gradually layers of paint are built up and often glazed with thinned pigment and Liquin, a quick-drying medium for oils.
He especially likes the challenge of painting white objects and sees other colors like yellow, blue or gray mixed in. As he says, “The dance and play of warm versus cools that make up white.” His paintings featuring white pumpkins or paper lanterns illustrate how differently light can reflect off a white object. In “A Study in White,” a christening dress belonging to his niece reveals subtle colors in the folds of its fabric.
When he illustrated historical fiction, Rob amassed a collection of vintage clothing. An old blue jacket from his stockpile became the subject of his painting, “Victoriana.” The jacket hangs on a wall and takes on a life of its own. Beneath it is a trunk from the early 1900’s that belonged to Rob’s grandparents when they immigrated from Hungary. In 2018, the painting was selected by The Artist’s Magazine as one of 30 winning pieces. It was also a finalist in the ARC Salon’s annual competition in 2016.
Also in 2018, his painting of a young girl entitled, “Clara,” was honored with a certificate of excellence award by the Portrait Society of America. The subject smiles wistfully and wears a brilliant red coat, fur hat and muff. In the background an old wooden toy horse on an antique table hints at an earlier time.
From a young age Rob has been recognized for his artistic ability. In high school he won a national art competition with his colored pencil drawing of a baseball player which was hung in the U.S. Capitol Building. In the late 80’s his painting celebrating the spirit of the winter Olympics was featured in Time magazine along with four other winners.
Rob was born and raised in Highland Park, New Jersey. After graduating high school, he attended the DuCret School of Art, the state’s oldest art school in Plainfield. Formally trained under the renowned illustrator Peter Caras, Rob learned the craft of making illustrations into works of art. Commercial art appealed to Rob because it offered a more reliable way of earning a living rather than struggling to find buyers for fine art.
At DuCret he was trained using the Frank Reilly method. Reilly was one of the most influential art teachers of the 20th century in addition to being an illustrator and painter. His scientific methods for teaching art led to his creation of a values based palette for figure painting which Rob still relies on.
After graduating from DuCret in 1989, Rob continued to take classes there for a number of years. It was also where he met his wife, Lisa, who writes and illustrates children’s books. On two occasions she’s also been a model for Rob’s book cover illustrations.
Early in their careers, to earn extra money the couple did small paintings on the side to sell at art shows and weekend festivals. Throughout their lives Rob and his wife have supported themselves entirely though their art. Never afraid to try anything, some of the work was less than glamorous. They laughingly recalled having to illustrate a nose hair clipper complete with the nose for a mail order company. The illustration was so convincing that they were further commissioned to draw a toenail clipper.
Rob has several illustrators he looks up to including James Bama, Robert McGinnis, N.C. and Andrew Wyeth, J.C. Leyendecker and Norman Rockwell. A signed print by Rockwell was given to him as a wedding gift by his illustration teacher who was a friend of Rockwell’s. The Saturday Evening Post cover shows a couple at city hall signing their marriage licenses and now hangs in Rob’s living room.
He also pays homage to the giants of fine art and said, “John Singer Sargent is unequaled for his portraiture. William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s technique and skin tones are sublime. And John William Waterhouse’s romantic narrative compositions are timeless. Which is what I try to accomplish with my fine art.”
Rob paints portraits on commission and said capturing the essence of a person is a lot like problem solving. He claimed that boys are harder to paint than girls.
His work is exhibited at New York City’s Salmagundi Club and he’s a member of Oil Painters of America. “May Day” was recently accepted into the Salmagundi Club’s figurative show called: “Figuratively Speaking: An Exhibition of Portraiture & Figurative Art.”
On his website you won’t find the usual artist’s statement, but when pinned down, he said, “I like to push paint around.” He sits while he’s painting and listens to sports radio. At 51, he looks surprisingly boyish in one of several baseball caps he likes to wear.
When he’s not painting, Rob enjoys the physical work of building furniture and frames for his artwork. Along with their three cats, he and Lisa have enjoyed the quiet pace of Haycock Township and will soon be moving to a new home a few miles away in Richland Township.
Rob’s artwork is available for purchase through fineartamerica.com and on his website: robertpapp.com. Next year you’ll be able to purchase his still life illustrations in miniature form at the post office. The Fruits & Vegetables stamp project for 2020 is his first for the U.S. Postal Service.
Michele Malinchak is a freelance writer and avid gardener from Quakertown, PA.