Tom Ludwig Painting: Current work/ Thumbnails

In 1989, I obtained part-time employment at a major financial institution in the New York area. Quickly, this position became full-time, and my responsibilities increased to the point where my painting career was virtually put on hold for almost ten years, with only some rare bursts of painting here and there. In 2001, I made some decisions (mainly leaving my employer) to enable a greater emphasis on my painting career.

My re-invigorated painting efforts have seen somewhat of an evolution in my subject matter and overall approach. While still working in the realist tradition, I am working on a larger scale than before, and even enlarging the size of the painted objects themselves. Painting on a slightly larger scale was something I decided to pursue after becoming familiar with the work of Chuck Close, who paints enormous canvasses of portrait heads in a variety of media.

Another theme I am exploring is depicting backgrounds containing small repeated "wallpaper" images, including race cars, cartoon images of Felix the Cat, and harlequin diamonds.

Click on each image below to see larger images of each painting and a description of its development.

Ring