Robert LeMar

About the Artist

I was born November 17th, 1950 in Ann Arbor Michigan and grew up in Chicago. My childhood was marked by broken homes in rough neighborhoods. When I was ten, my stepmother, having discovered my artistic talent, drafted me to sketch portraits on the beaches of the Chicago lakefront, to help support the family. I charged 50 cents for each portrait and averaged between 5 and 8 dollars a day. Although I had to contribute all of the money to the family, I benefited greatly from this experience at that early age. I was eleven when I won a Golden Key award for Art through a Chicago Public School competition. At about that time I also won a scholarship for a series of lectures at The Art Institute of Chicago. After being discharged from the Army, I attended The Maryland College of Art and Design in 1971, where I became excited about abstract art and studied the works of Rothko, Rauschenberg, Johns, Indiana, Thiebaud, and others. This had an effect on my realism. To help finance my schooling, I again sketched portraits in the summer on the boardwalk in Ocean City, MD and continued to do this for ten years. I estimate that during those ten years I sketched almost 10,000 portraits! I also perfected my skill as a portrait painter and began receiving commissions. I am inspired by light, color, and the three-dimensionality of objects. I strive to show how objects are separate from the air around them. I want them to have simplicity and a bold presence. In 1995 I had a one-person show at Whitehall Gallery in Annapolis MD. Then in 1997 I had a one-person show at Sheryl Leonard Gallery in Potomac MD. I have shown and sold works in various other galleries in Maryland. My works are owned by corporate and private collections including: Sea Colony Resorts, Bethany Beach, DE; Architectural Interiors, Ocean City, MD; Rhodes Consultants, South Point, MD; Artistic Images, Bethany Beach, DE; The Ruddertown Complex, Dewey Beach, DE; Diane Gordy Interiors, Rehoboth Beach, DE; Beltway Plaza Developers, Greenbelt, MD; The Captain Bunting, Ocean City, MD; The Bethany Land Company, Berlin, MD.