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Robert Dowler: Painting with Passion by Michael Potashnik September 2024
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| Robert Dowler has a passion for painting. He grew up in New Jersey and started painting in watercolor in the late 60s while a sophomore at St. Francis University in Pennsylvania. He initially learned to paint from a book by William B Schimmel, Watercolor, the Happy Medium; he also painted on summer vacations on Bethany Beach, Delaware. He first took lessons from Edwin J. Haves, a noted New Jersey watercolorist who taught him the fundamentals of watercolors and landscape painting. When Robert started practicing law in Virginia, got married and raised a family, he had little time for painting. However, with his passion for art, he continued painting on vacations and some weekends. He also read many watercolor instruction books and attended workshops with some nationally known artists such as Tony Couch, Frank Webb, and Mel Stabin which gave him further practical knowledge on “what is important to a painting and what is not.” He also took workshops at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria and for many years studied with Jean Gill, whom he enjoyed immensely. |
Robert has been painting en plein air for many years, mainly on vacation at Bethany Beach. He has also participated in a plein air workshop given in the Fall at Assateague Island sponsored by the Assateague Island Alliance. The workshop involves going out on the dunes, sketching the horses and beach scenes such as in the lovely picture here. He also paints with the Loudoun Sketch Club which he joined some six years ago, but has only become active the last three years. Robert also entered the Great Falls plein air competition the last two years |
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Robert has been juried into and won some awards at the Fairfax Art League and Honorable Mention in the Vienna Art Society. The powerful seascape below won him one of his awards at the Fairfax Art League. He is a member of the Vienna Art Society. He has also been juried into shows at the Delaware Watercolor Society and the Virginia Watercolor Society. He served as President and Treasurer of the Fairfax Art League. |
| Robert admires the paintings of the French, American and British watercolor impressionists such as John Singer Sargent, Trevor Chamberlain, Rex Brant and Tony Couch. He is also a fan of Homer and Hopper, the California school, and American watercolors in the 1940s and 50s. He says that he likes these artists because “in their paintings they depict the essence of the subject matter in a series of wet-in-wet washes of value and color without losing the luminosity that is unique to watercolor.” Robert is trying to accomplish this in his own paintings and with his passion for art, he will not doubt be successful. |
