Western Painterly: The Fine Art of Robert Tompkins

You seem to enjoy a wide variety of topics in your art, most with a Montana “flavor,” and all with an appreciation of the natural world.  Why does this inspiration work for you?

I grew up in western Colorado and my family spent time in the mountains. I was privileged to have an uncle who was a freelance photographer and exposed me to the Colorado and Utah mountains/landscape. His explanations of design at his slide shows were enlightening, even as a child. After coming to Montana in 1975, I began spending a lot of time in Big Sky and the Beartooth Range. The mix of great color in the landscape, the mixture of grasses, trees, and interesting slopes appeal to me. 

Using the dynamic design principles of composition, I am immediately drawn to certain intersections and diagonals that create interest. ln experimental psychology we studied the physics of visual perception. The human eye organizes space such that the placement of the primary focus in the composition is pleasing and familiar. I make the subject as bold as I can with subordinate shapes and colors. 

Driving back from an auction in Red Lodge a few years ago, I saw a beautiful horse, a Paint, that I went back to photograph. That image became the painting “Red Lodge Grazer,” which was the featured piece in the St. Johns Foundation Show and Sale later that year (2011). The strength of his pose, the strong diagonals, the light/dark, and warm/cool features were just too much to pass up. Placing his head in the lower quadrant worked. The late afternoon sun created great shadows and light.

Will we be seeing more of your figurative art, particularly works with Native American subjects?

I do plan to do more Native American paintings. I am doing another dancer. Again, the strength of the movement, the features and poses are critical to achieving the dynamic symmetry I am looking for in a painting.

When not painting, what activities or interests do you find most enjoyable and fulfilling?

When not in the studio, I enjoy cycling, playing guitar, and spending time with my grown children as well as my two gifted beautiful granddaughters. Two of my friends and I did a cycling trip in 2010 from St. Paul to Rockport, Maine.
I am planning a book of paintings of this trip.

Finally, what does your work reveal about Robert Tompkins outside the medium?  What would you like our readers to know about your personal attributes and the life experiences influencing your work?

My interest in art began early, as an immersion in beauty from the mountain landscape as well as the connection with my uncle and his sharing of flowers from his rock garden and his slide shows. I also had a musical education that I believe relates to art in that it is mathematically based on unity and harmony. A well-designed painting involves harmony just as in music chord structure. I drew in school, going through an airplane phase, then designs, later life drawing. In college I took a design course when possible. I went on to the doctoral level in clinical psychology, specializing in neuroscience and medical psychology. I began painting seriously about 25 years ago. My brother. a photographer, mentions that my art comes from “deep inside.’’ When someone reacts to a painting emotionally, it doesn’t get much better.