Artist’s Statement

Timothy R. Ohliger developed a great fondness and connection to nature, wilderness and art while growing up near the Catskill Mountains.  He lived in a small town across the Hudson River in Wappingers Falls, N.Y.  Soon into his first semester at Dutchess Community College, he realized how rich and satisfying the arts could be.  After earning his two year degree in Commercial Arts and Advertising he put down his tools as a mechanic and quickly transferred to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design where Illustration and Plein Air painting became his life.

While at RISD he found direct observation or plein air painting to be the most effective way for evaluating color relationships and producing illusionary spaces.  In his last year he continued to paint from life but also began further investigation into the archival materials and subject matter pertaining to environmental issues.  These new goals and ideas were formed after traveling to Italy for several weeks in January 2006.

Since graduating from RISD in June 2006, Timothy has been running a small but prosperous studio in Providence, R.I.  He continues to experiment with materials, never straying far from what the masters have proven safe.  He frequents New York for the first-hand experience of what Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand, artists of the Hudson River School, worked from.  Caspar D. Friedrich, Claude Lorrain, Frederick E. Church and contemporaries like Lucian Freud and Rackstraw Downs are several other whom he admires.

Timothy currently works on compositions that are influenced directly by his east coast childhood stomping grounds, studies and travels of Europe, and his recent exploration of Colorado.