Award-winning oil and pastel painter, and inspiring instructor, Bob Rohm teaches how to paint in his DVD art workshops in what he defines as a painterly approach. Rohm communicates the externals of his subjects with great vibrancy and power. His inner vision speaks of simple yet subtly complex beauty.

As far back as he can remember, Bob has been drawing and painting. He was introduced to the power of painting when at the age of ten a favorite Aunt took him to an exhibition of French Impressionists. This experience overwhelmed and propelled him toward life as an artist. "How exciting it would be to create something that could visually reach people on an emotional and intellectual level," he reflects.

In the years following his graduation from the York Academy of Arts in 1970, he entered into a career in the film and video production business. He began as a camera assistant and quickly became a director, then producer and eventually ran his own production company. The long hours and demands of this business eventually led him to stop painting altogether for nearly ten years. While the physical act of putting paint to canvas was suspended, Rohm said, "I never stopped painting in my mind. Painting was my life's desire and I longed to return to it."

Born and raised in the northeast, Rohm's return to painting was triggered in early 80's when he moved to Texas; the broad vistas and bright, hard sky of the southwest opened up before him. Here was a landscape of stark simplicity and solitary beauty. Bob began to cut back on his production business in order to paint part time, and, in a few short years he became a full time artist.

Rohm's style reflects his discovery of the southwest: "Although my work is representational, I simplify textures and surfaces to dramatize planes of light and color. My use of color is impressionistic and expressive. I contrast both hard and soft edges, as well as transparent and opaque paint," he explains. Each painting seems to capture an element beyond reality. Each moves the viewer beyond the subject itself. As Rohm says, "A painting fails if it does not induce the viewer to experience some form of emotion, not only about what the subject is but why it is." And while not all of his paintings have a typical southwestern theme, they demonstrate the focus of style which evolved through his realization of the southwestern image: razor-sharp contrasts and vivid colors.

Rohm lectures, demonstrates and teaches painting workshops internationally. A signature member of the Oil Painters of America, and the Pastel Society of America, he has exhibited in national and international shows and has been the recipient of numerous awards. Bob is also a signature member of the National Academy of Professional Plein Air Painters. His art and teachings have been featured in Southwest Art, International Artist, American Artist and Pastel Journal, and can be found in numerous corporate and private collections internationally.