"My work is born from and most closely aligns with post-impressionism and fauvism... In my own words I have referred to my work as modern impressionism. It is an exploration of color culminating in combinations of layered strokes that deliver a smack to the brain, while at the same time pulling you into a warmth of graduating hues."

​Rob Buntin is an oil painter of 30 years, and his story from the dusty dirt roads of Georgia in the United States to the cobbled streets of France carries with it some turns that explain his style. Buntin brings impressionism to the future by leveraging colors layered in deliberate brush strokes that deliver a physiological spark, while light captured across matter and air draws in and calms.
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The first thing that must strike viewers of your work is a great level of dedication and attention to detail. Tell us about your process and how long it takes you to work on a painting?
The process is a mix of old and new. I capture photos, scoping out locations during the day, and returning at dusk and dawn. I sift through the photos, and then get my iPad and Apple pencil to sketch a few drafts. I have configured the pencil to mimic my stroke so I can get a sense of how it will play out. This takes a few hours but on occasion, sketching for a commission has taken weeks. After planning out the colors, composition, and layers thoroughly, I begin painting. I paint layer upon layer across the whole canvas. The oils dry at different rates depending on the color and chemical makeup, so I may wait 2 to 10 days between layers. As long as I stick to the color plan, the painting will wrap up in 20 to 80 hours. This may seem like a lot, but it is elegant compared to where I once was. There was a time when I would just pick up the brush at the moment the concept struck me and start painting. I would spend a few hours painting joyfully, and then a few more grunting, then repainting, then repeat. Even on occasion I would spend an hour sanding the paint off with an electric sander or cutting the canvas and remounting it (Pan to the curious expressions looking in the gallery window). Over the years I have learned to
trust the more methodical process.

How would you describe your work in your own words?
It is born from and most closely aligns with post-impressionism and fauvism. I have never heard a specific name for it, although have heard it affectionately called ‘blocky’, or even better, a mix of cubism and pointillism called ‘pubism’. In my own words I have referred to it as modern impressionism. It is an exploration of color culminating in combinations of layered strokes that deliver a smack to the brain, while at the same time pulling you into a warmth of graduating hues.

"Where impressionists paint with masterful fleeting strokes, I may plan the placement of an individual stroke. In the end my work fills the gap between the past and the present, and allows me to feel a connection with those great masters."

​Your work feels like an information age update on impressionism. What did you identify as missing in this field?
I once cringed to think of the technology connection. I had sought to get as far away from my 3:00 am cubicle nights as possible, but the deliberate nature of my art is definitely influenced by the tech methodologies of 20 years of IT programming and analysis. I have grown to accept it. Regarding a gap that I was trying to fill, this was not a deliberate endeavor. I have always connected with the art of Paul Signac. The way the colors interact is just amazing. Over time my technique grew into a pseudo impressionism/fauvism but with a layered technique that requires a more deliberate approach. Where impressionists paint with masterful fleeting strokes, I may plan the placement of an individual stroke. In the end my work fills the gap between the past and the present, and allows me to feel a connection with those great masters.

You are especially drawn to painting cityscapes and landscapes at dusk and dawn. What qualities make them such compelling subjects?
The moment when the street lights have just come on or are just about to go off… when the sky is a deep blue… the black of the buildings is broken up by violets of dawn and dusk inching in, and the lights from windows throw warm glows of yellows and oranges. It allows me to graduate colors such as from blue to violet to red, which delivers the most impact. It also allows for striking complementary colors such as rich blues and rich oranges to be present in close proximity. These are old school color theories that are present in almost all of my paintings. When I am walking alone in the black streets at 5am, my first thoughts are that I would rather be in bed, but as the sky starts to warm and a few windows across the city start to flicker on as people start their early routines, the colors emerge and pictures start to be painted in my head.

​You have talked about achieving a psychological spark in viewers of your work. Give us some specifics on this.
For me the art that I am most drawn to starts with the color combinations and how certain combinations can trigger the dopamine release in the frontal cortex. It is never a single color alone, but is the perfect harmony of juxtaposed colors that intensifies the effect. That is the spark that I seek out in my paintings. Sometimes it is a bright spark triggered by combinations of cerulean blues and yellow ochre or maybe a warm spark triggered by oranges and yellows against ultramarine blues. Combining these complementary pairs with a scheme that also graduates them from one color to the other, or tinting/shading from less intensity to greater intensity further heightens the spark. Not everyone will experience it in the same way, which makes it all the more interesting to me.

"For me the art that I am most drawn to starts with the color combinations and how certain combinations can trigger the dopamine release in the frontal cortex. It is never a single color alone, but is the perfect harmony of juxtaposed colors that intensifies the effect."

​For anyone that has been to any of the places you have painted, they must realise that you have captured something they would never have felt from a thousand photos. Share with us some of the feedback you have received from those who are familiar with these places?
Wow. I have never heard it put quite that way. People do seem to connect with the feeling of the painting. I suppose it is like how a memory is warmed over time, the lights becoming warmer, colors more vivid, and the details are blurred into more of a feeling. I have had some pretty emotional experiences with customers. Some of them were commissions for a loved one, where they were blindsided by this intense image of a special place. In one case a man was walking by the studio and stopped to look in the window, and then started crying. I spent about an hour talking to him about his past and how it drummed up memories for him (In the end I could not bring myself to tell him that it was not actually the location that he thought it was). It is a special part of art, and for me an unexpected positive that comes with selling your art professionally.

​Does your art resonate strongest with any particular groups?
I typically find people are first drawn to the intensity of the colors, and then step closer and grasp the style. The most interesting realisation was how much men have connected with it. Typically, at least as studies have shown, women appreciate art more than men, especially for the artistic qualities. But I sell a lot of art to men or to wives buying a painting their husband loves. The men, in many cases, are builders, plumbers, architects, manufacturers, etc. and I find that interesting as well. So there could be a subconscious connection there between our methodologies that draws their attention.

​How did you develop your interest in art?
I have been interested since I was a child, though was often frustrated with finding subject matter. Everything in the world outside in the south in the U.S. seemed brown and gray- dusty pecan orchards and cotton fields, gray square buildings, brown lakes, brown trees… Despite that, I had a great high school art teacher, Peggy Braun, that motivated me and started an advanced placement course for three of us. She pushed us hard, and after many late nights I ended up being the only student at the end. My interest expanded more at Furman University, where my professor, Olof Sorensen, shared my affinity for bold colors. I was still a bit frustrated and bored with the colors of the real world around me, but it was the introduction there to the works of the old masters that brought the inspiration I needed. The internet was really taking off in the 1990s and access to great images of the impressionist and fauvist masters who utilized such bright and intense colors made me realize that the fields and rocks they were painting were no more or less dull than the ones I was looking at. It was me that was being dull. Inspiration today comes from the abundance of art swirling around, in galleries and studios, but more so in social media. There is so much great art at your fingertips, and I love being surprised by the explosions in my head that great artists are triggering with their usage of color.
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"People do seem to connect with the feeling of the painting. I suppose it is like how a memory is warmed over time, the lights becoming warmer, colors more vivid, and the details are blurred into more of a feeling."

From your perspective can you identify ways that your computing career has influenced your artworks?
The computer science background has helped me most in vision, planning, and discipline. In my I.T. career we would
​have a specific problem, and would begin with the brainstorming of the vision for the solution, and then move on to the designing of the solution in words and flowcharts, and then move on to the actual coding development of the solution. We knew that we could rush it together in a week or two, but in following the necessary protocol it would often take 6 months to two years. Much of the process was not exciting because we could not just jump to the finished project to see it in action. There were points along the way where we could see it coming together, but we had to have patience and trust the process to ensure that the end result would be correct. This is all exactly the same for me in art. There is a lot of patience and discipline required, because the temptation is always there. The colors on the palette are screaming to be slapped onto the canvas, but while giving in to it would feel great for five minutes, it would be either ruining the painting or sending it down an alternate path that may have no end. This deliberate nature of my work reaches to the individual strokes. When I look at one of my paintings, even after several years, I can see one of the final strokes and recall the deliberation and the reason it is there.

You came back to art after two decades spent building software. How was the transition?
From the beginning I wanted to be an artist, but I was convinced by those around me that it was not the time for me to be attempting an art career, saying plainly that I would be a starving artist and unable to support my family. So I picked a career that I could hopefully at some point leverage in the future to inch my way into art. At the time I knew absolutely nothing about computers, and found myself surrounded by people who lived and breathed tech. It was going to be a rough ride. I never really left art, though. It was always there, even if it was drawing on yellow sticky notes in my cubicle at 2am while waiting on a test of a bug fix to complete. I held onto the plan that it would all work out, and art gradually inched its way back in until in 2008 I was officially working two jobs and painting late at night and on weekends. Those days were great days, but also tough. We had a young child, and my wife, Nicole, was also working. Nicole was carrying a pretty large burden those days. Then we had a second child, and the complexities of life grew more fun, but challenging. It was in 2016 that we heard that Nicole had the opportunity with her work for us all to move to France. This was the moment we had been waiting for, though we didn’t expect it for several more years. Moving to France and transitioning to full time art were two dreams converging at once. Though I must admit, it has not all been dreamy. Transitioning to a full time art business in a country where you don’t speak the language has been tricky, and after three years I am still learning both the business and French. Some great people have helped, and my wife has been so supportive and the perfect partner in the adventure.

You and your wife now live in Clermont-Ferrand, France with your two children who are also budding artists?
Yes, I have two beautiful girls that their teachers have said every year are both talented artists. I say this because I personally have no real frame of reference for how good a 5 or 7 year old is supposed to be. When we travel these days, it has reached the point that people will stop in their tracks and back up to look over the girls’ shoulders at their sketches. I cannot take credit though. They don’t even let me paint with them anymore, because they say I am too picky and that I am always wanting to make their paintings better. Well, yes, exactly.

"I love being surprised by the explosions in my head that great artists are triggering with their usage of color."

"This deliberate nature of my work reaches to the individual strokes. When I look at one of my paintings, even after several years, I can see one of the final strokes and recall the deliberation and the reason it is there."

​How has France impacted your art?
The art of France’s past, France’s art today, and France itself as a subject matter for art all make it a pretty ideal place for an artist. It was my wife and her work that made it all possible for us to move. And after much travel around Europe, my wife and I find France still to be the most beautiful. The architecture and natural landscape, and often combination of both, is stunning, and offers an unlimited supply of subject matter. I remember as a child in Georgia walking with my sketchpad down the dirt alley to the muddy pond at the end to sit and draw it (and my brother bringing his gun to sit and shoot the frogs). I realize how fortunate I am now to have this opportunity. The unique light in Normandy and Provence, the villages with the old bridges lit at night by beautiful lamp posts, the lavender and sunflower and poppy fields, the vineyards, the black stone churches made of volcanic rock, the turquoise waters of the calanques, the clouds scattered above hills quilted with the yellow of rapeseed. There is so much richness in France that the opportunities for artistic expressions are endless, and I am happy to spend forever chasing them down.

You have been painting for 30 years. When you look back, what are some of the best decisions that you made that got you to where you are today?
One of the hardest processes as an artist is developing a recognizable style. Most artists by definition do not want to live by rules, but the business of art mandates that artists follow the rule of painting one way so that people will recognize and buy your art. I was no different in my battle against this premise, but finding a style and the decision to stick with it allowed me to further develop it, develop more business, and in the end I have been fortunate enough thus far to love working in it. This was driven by advice early on from those wiser than me. The decision to reach out to experts along the way, and trust their judgement and guidance, has been invaluable.

Tell us about some of the proudest moments in your career thus far?
I would have to say teaching a lesson on color theory in my 10 year old daughter’s classroom was pretty great. I could see their minds were blown when breaking down the science of a Monet painting, and showing the tricks that colors can play on the brain with some color tools. ​There were literally kids laughing, some screaming, one even crying by the end of it. I think the teacher was accustomed to a more controlled environment, but it made an impact.

Any advice for up and coming artists?
I believe success is an ongoing process and I am nowhere near the end of that journey. I am still striving to come up with creative ways to break through into new markets to reach people who may want my art. This year, for example, I employed our babysitter, who speaks at least three languages, to call targeted galleries across Europe to try to tap into those galleries attending exhibitions that I liked. She made contact with one of the top three on my list and I am now working with them. Success for me was taking advantage of opportunities when they arise. The landscape in the art market changes every few years, and you have to be willing to adapt to it, figure out where your art will thrive, and act on that. Since this is information that is not at your fingertips, you have to be willing to listen a lot to those in the market, especially when they are talking about your work.

​What can we expect from you in the future?
Expanding my presence in Europe is my first goal.
I have started working with Arts Evasion Galerie out of Toulouse, and they are doing a great job during these tough times with creative marketing. I look forward to seeing how things progress as the world returns to normal. I also am planning to expand into Spain with another gallery in 2021, and try to push my art into as many exhibitions as possible. As far as my art itself, I understand that the market right now in Europe wants bigger paintings, and for my style the bigger the better, so it will be fun.


Website: www.robbuntin.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/robbuntinart
Facebook: www.facebook.com/robbuntinart