Artist Profile – Robert McClintock

I spent a night in Baltimore a few weeks back on the way to New York.  I have never spent any time in Baltimore, and most of my impressions of the city are negative.  I love the HBO show The Wire, which does not do Baltimore any favors in terms of image.

As I am wont to do in a new city, I went out exploring the city with my family.  We quickly bored of the touristy inner harbor area and took a water taxi over to Fells Point.   Fells Point is a very fashionable, cobblestone-street area of the city filled with restaurants and pubs.  When we stepped off the taxi, I saw an art gallery on one of the corners and went over to take a look.  It was the gallery of Robert McClintock.  Robert’s work is simply amazing.

From what I can tell (and I know nothing about art), Robert takes one-of-a-kind photographs and then enhances them with paint on canvas.  The effect is very cool.  Robert’s wife Sue was manning the desk, and we got to talking about their recent trip to Bologna, Italy.  The pictures from the trip brought back great memories of our trip to Italy last year.  Robert also has an affinity for baseball and baseball parks.  He had some incredible paintings of the old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, as well as the old Yankee Stadium and others.

I got to meet Robert after a while as he wandered out from the back.  We had a really interesting discussion about the city of Baltimore.  His paintings have actually appeared in The Wire, in the offices of Maury Levy.

The visit to the gallery completely changed my view of Baltimore.  Robert does great work, and I highly recommend a visit to his storefront if you are in the area.