Nationally renown portrait artist, Robert Maniscalco.  Robert travels all over the world to create heirloom portraits in oil, pastel and charcoal,including executive, political, religious, military, judicialand family portraiture. He also accepts posthumous commissions, working from available photographs, as well as from old family photos to create his world class portraits. Maniscalco is exceptional with men, women,children, even pets. He also enjoys the challenge of equestrian portraiture and bridal portraits.

 

BIO

 

Since 1980, Robert Maniscalco’s exquisite commissioned portraits and fine art have become part of over 850 distinguished private and public collections throughout North America. His painting method is built on the classical painting traditions of Rembrandt, Velazquez, Hals and Seargent, who explored the use of light and shadow as a means of creating mood and achieving character in their subjects. Born in Detroit in 1959, he is the son of internationally renowned portrait artist Joseph Maniscalco, with whom he apprenticed during the early 1980′s.

He moved to New York City in 1986 where, in addition to his fine art, he also worked as an actor and director on numerous stage, film and TV projects. He returned to Detroit in 1997 after a three year portrait residency in New Orleans. Back in Detroit he founded the Maniscalco Gallery, which showcased many local and international artists.As host of Art Beat, the critically acclaimed PBS series on Detroit Public Television, he explored the creative process with his celebrated guests.He has created two DVDs on painting portraits, called The Power of Positive Painting and published a novel called The Fishfly.

Though his creative muse has taken many forms he has discovered a common thread which connects them all together. Robert speaks to the basic need we all share to communicate aesthetically about the human condition. He shares his remarkable path toward personal and professional growth and creative self-expression in his book, Point of Art. In addition to his portraits, Robert has created several bodies of work, including Faces of China, Italia, and a series of pastels on velour entitled Chromo Sapient. He is currently working on a series of Faces of the Lowcountry, featuring the Gullah people and the Carolina Lowcountry.

 

Robert currently lives in Charleston, South Carolina where he continues his mission and where he is raising his two wonderful children, Danny and Mary with his amazing wife Cate.

 

ARTIST STATEMENT

My goal as a portrait painter is to create paintings that will stand the test of time as compelling works of art, alive with the personality of both artist and subject.

 

I think of my work as a celebration and affirmation of life.

 

Each portrait is an adventure, exploring the unique character and personal strengths of my sitters. A love of people and a deep interest in the human experience is key to my work. It’s not about how you look, it’s about who you are. My training as a painter, actor and musician have increased my interest in capturing this quintessential dynamic with authority, authenticity and compassion.

 

Over the years I’ve come to appreciate the transubstantiation of image to feeling inherent in a great oil-on-canvas portrait. Nothing else has the power to capture the personality and character of the subject for the ages. Portrait painting is about exploring the lyricism of character and dynamics of personality within the painted surface. More than a photograph made to look like a painting, my portraits are the real thing.

My larger goal as an artist is to explore the full range of my medium, which is light. I have developed several bodies of work exploring a variety of structures and subjects, but the poetry of light on form keeps coming back into my work. Light is the force that reveals the subtleties of nature, particularly the human condition. My work is all about what it is to be human and our journey toward the light.  Another theme which runs through all my work is something I call surTHRIVal.  We are all on a journey of survival, to make the best of what we are given.   My purpose as an artist is to find and celebrate the many creative ways humans find to overcome and grow as a result of this journey.