I have always loved Impressionism.
ooooooooEven as a child, I could recall stumbling onto a painting by Monet or Sisely in a book and noticing something about it that was very different than anything I’d seen before. The colors and images were very bold and beautiful, but somehow the fascination went beyond that. It would remind me of a moment or a time that I could recall feeling myself. This was magical to me. It would become a defining moment in my life, affecting the way I looked at art from then on. I knew I wanted to do this myself.
ooooooooWhen I paint, my goal is to capture the atmosphere around a subject, not just the subject itself. Whether it is the color of the morning air, the look of the city after a heavy rain, or how the late afternoon sun can completely change the mood of a day, it is this that is most meaningful to me. I find it thrilling to be able to recreate that feeling in my own paintings. If I can make the viewer feel the same thing, then I feel I’ve accomplished what I set out to do. This is what I want others to see in my work.
ooooooooHaving grown up in Brooklyn, the New York urban landscape provides constant inspiration for me. Much of my childhood was filled with memories of rooftop views of the city from the elevated trains, and sparkling panoramas of bridges lit up at night. I find these subjects lend themselves beautifully to Impressionistic interpretation and they frequently make their way into my paintings. The effect of changing light upon city streets and buildings is very compelling. This is especially true in “bad” weather, when the snow and rain transform them into something beautiful and mysterious. The light shimmering off a wet pavement or a snowstorm blanketing the city in pristine silence never fails to capture my imagination. These are favorite subjects to paint.
ooooooooI find it almost magical that by combining the right dabs of color on a canvas, you can communicate in such a way that someone could relive that same fleeting moment, as you experienced it, by just looking at it. There is great power in this. The painting becomes a sort of time machine enabling someone a hundred years later to see and feel the world the same way that artist did. To know how he felt and to see through his or her eyes. And perhaps inspire that kid from Brooklyn to become a painter himself and do the same.

Some Thoughts on How I Paint
My approach involves a very deliberate use of impressionist methods. I rarely use only one flat color in any one section of a painting. What may seem like an area of grey will really contain strokes of three or four different colors combined to optically mix into the perceived hue. I find this technique really makes colors vibrant. Sometimes I will purposely obscure details in what will appear as thick slabs of paint up close but will the start to coalesce into an image as the viewer steps back.
ooooooooI use acrylics almost exclusively. I vastly prefer them over oils for a whole list of reasons, but mostly for the fast drying time. This can either be a blessing or a curse depending om who you are and how you like to paint. I tend to develop my paintings quickly and will often want to apply certain colors over an already dry area so the bottom color can show through without being altered. This enables me to dry brush or glaze without having to wait forever for the layer beneath to dry. Being able to continue fairly quiclky betwwen these steps maintains my momentum and keeps my attention on the overall progress of the painting before I get bogged down on details.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Robert Padovano currently resides in Staten Island with his wife and two children. An award-winning graphic artist, he has received numerous national and international design awards and has had work published in Print Magazine, Graphis, Creativity Annual, and American Corporate Identity among many others. He is currently Senior Art Director at Health Science Communications in New York City. He is an accomplished guitarist and musician and has played with several bands in the tristate area over the years.
He attended Brooklyn College and studied design at The School of Visual Arts.