Robert Flinkman

Robert Flinkman
Pennsylvania landscape
oil on canvas
18" X 24"
1991
copyright 1991 Robert Flinkman

(NOTE: Some areas in the painting were reworked in Albuq.in 1997)

July 16th, 1991            Tuesday

I got to the scene I wanted to do at Rte.11, and set up easel, paint and canvas under the shade of the line of trees along the slate wall that divided the fields. I worked quickly and easily, as it was so quiet and no wind, quite the contrary with the  orchard scene - wind was constantly at me.
I felt a great sense of internal contentment doing this painting - I guess it shows. Everything seems to have its place here. It's so important to find something that gives you that sort of internal peace, that you've found something you were meant to do, and do it well. I got to the scene about 10:30, left at 2:45. While walking back to the car carting the work to put in the trunk, I thought to myself that while these works may not get the full recognition now - decades in the future they will be fully appreciated. For the amount I spent here is only a fraction of what each of these works will go for. I know I am creating for the future - all of what I do is a visual, creative testimony to this age - one man's view and experience of this age. What I write here and what I create in art will stand as a testament to this last decade of this century. Vainglorious? - no. I am only doing what I must do. This, the painting and the writing, is what I was meant to do, and so I'm doing it, regardless of whether I will be recognized now or not, I will be remembered.
When I put all the work away, I walked amongst the hay bales, and along the tomatoes, feeling that warmth, drinking in deeply that warm, rich sweet scent this earth here gives off under the sun. This is a golden land, this is where I am meant to be.