ROBERT TOWNSEND
1 ROBERT TOWNSEND New works Jackson Hole | Scottsdale | AltamiraArt.com
2 Wanderlust III Oil on canvas | 25 x 30 inches Enquire
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4 ROBERT TOWNSEND Robert Townsend sees in stories and histories. Through his lens, a coterie of matchbooks become cues for cultural recollection; a stack of souvenir booklets from the 50s speak to social memory.
Memorable moments seem to materialize for him and his art. For instance, on a recent trip to art mecca Marfa, Texas, a storefront in the echoey downtown caught his eye and lens; its crenulated façade freshly painted white with pistachio-green tile as trim contrasting the sidewalk. Returning when the light was perfect, he positioned himself across the street from the vacant building, not a car in sight until all of a sudden, a fire-engine red Jeep sailed by and pulled a U-turn to claim the primo spot in front of the photogenic edifice. Thanks to this stroke of serendipity and fiery cameo, the composition became complete, and Townsend took the reference photo now propped beside a towering canvas in his studio. “I don’t know if it would have made a great painting without the red truck,” he says in reflection. “Without it, it would have felt more like an Edward Hopper painting of a flat, vacant storefront. It was a one-in-amillion moment.” In spite of such kismet, Townsend never sets painterly expectations for his travels; instead of scouting scenes, he soaks up experiences, snapping pictures along the way, and often stores images for years before they percolate into paintings. While documentation is not his practice, he swoons the ways in which people tracked their adventures in the past. Before SLR cameras came into wide use, travelers would buy souvenir booklets of professional photographs from the places they visited and then share those pocket-sized pictures with their friends and family back home. Townsend has found a slew of the tiny booklets on eBay; each cover captures the visual panache of the place, be it the pizzaz of Palm Springs or the grandeur of the Tetons. Stacked and gridded, his take on a keepsake collection considers the graphic vibes as well as the shadowed memories associated with such Formementoes.Townsend, travel feels ever-more essential at this moment. “For me, traveling again has been a rebirth. I am much more in love with travel than I ever used to be,” he says. “Human joy comes from experiences.”
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6 Wanderlust I Oil on canvas | 25 x 30 inches Enquire
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8 Leaning on Sunshine Oil on canvas | 38.5 x 45 inches Enquire
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10 Wanderlust II Oil on canvas | 25 x 30 inches Enquire
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172 Center Street | Jackson WY AltamiraArt.com | 307-739-4700
