SOLO EXHIBITION | SCOTTSDALE, AZ
Altamira Fine Art Scottsdale is pleased to present new paintings from Robert Townsend in Blue Hawaii. New, larges scale paintings of Helen and Roy will be shown in our Scottsdale location from April 1st through the 13th, the first to be available in the series since Summer 2018.
Once upon a time, California artist Robert Townsend bought some slides on eBay, hoping to find the Americana scenes he paints in his hyperrealist style. Thus begins the heartwarming story of a contemporary painter who discovered far more than material inspiration: he found his muse—a woman who lived her life in full-color Kodachrome. And the more he learned about Helen, the louder the call became to spend the next two decades of his life painting her life—her marriage, her travels, her panache and her personality. “Helen will keep him busy for years,” says her surviving niece Cheryl. “He just has to follow the trail.”
And follow her trail he does in his exhibition of new paintings, Helen and Roy’s Blue Hawaii, at Altamira and in the award-winning documentary, My Indiana Muse, by Serena Creative, which has been featured in 18 film festivals across the country. On canvas and onscreen, Townsend conveys the magic of this midcentury-meets-modern fairy tale: how two lives, separated by time and place, can share the same joie de vivre. “I think she’s teaching a lesson—to me—about celebrating life,” Townsend says.
Altamira Fine Art is proud to feature an artist as intuitive and inspired as Townsend. Having spent decades diligently painting commonplace icons of the American landscape—neon signs, hotel billboards, old cars cast in a style influenced by the likes of Wayne Thiebaud and Robert Bechtle —he has finally found his raison d’être: To celebrate the joy of living the American dream, as Helen did every day.
Images comings soon.
Pre-sales available, email az@altamiraart.com or call 480-949-1256 for more details.