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2025 Third Place Poster, Robert Hunt |
An initial exposure to the artwork of Robert Hunt occurred about seven or eight years ago at a community swap meet/flea market event at Huddleston Farmhouse in Cambridge City, Indiana.
Hunt had just a few small landscape paintings on view, and they displayed the dashing spontaneity of a new artist, mainly self trained, at early work in his career, learning his craft and materials and exploring the newfound objects of his fascination.
Fast forward to an exhibition opening on June 5 and continuing for the month, at Carpenter Realtors in the heart of Irvington on Washington Street. Hunt shows a large collection of oil paintings created over the last few years, which display an amazing creative work ethic and output, and a development with his main medium of oil paint that is amazing for an artist still relatively early in his craft.
The unifying theme of the show is the people and places of Irvington.
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Robert Hunt Art at Carpenter Realtors, Irvington (partial view) |
In the artist statement and bio that accompanies the show, we learn Hunt grew up in Irvington and attended both grade school and high school in the town. He frequently returns to Irvington and continues to be inspired to create artworks depicting some of community's most well-known landmarks and events.
Three major working themes dominate the exhibition; Irvington in the pandemic era, the annual Irvington Halloween Festival and notable Irvington landmarks.
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Legends Operating At The Beginning Of The Pandemic, Robert Hunt |
Hunt's medium-sized oil on board picture Legends Operating At The Beginning Of The Pandemic shows the interior of former Irvington restaurant bathed in yellow light at night. The epidemic solitude of the times is emphasized by the single worker, wearing blue gloves and taking telephone orders. The sole worker connecting with customers only via the phone is an apt portrait of those difficult times.
Another picture in this series is James Dant Clothier which portrays an Irvington merchant proprietor at the front door of his business aside a sign on the door that states, in steadfast trust, 'Hoosiers Will See It Through.'
These two paintings, and others in the series, portray a hopeful perseverance. The importance of just showing up.
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Witch Pandemic Dancing, Robert Hunt |
A large number of paintings seemed aimed at all the connoisseurs of cosplay in our community. They show portraits of people in full costume at the Halloween Festival and Parade including a gritty portrait of a Joker and another of an elder Elvis called The King, among many others.
Hunt's painting for the annual festival poster competition, 2025 Third Place Poster, (image at top of page) is his tour de force in this genre, a subject matter for the young at heart, and one that he clearly enjoys.
Irvington locations are painted in several landscapes that include My Eye Dr and Steer-Inn Nocturne as well as a few small detailed views of the marquee sign for the Irving Theater and other sights nearby.
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Steer-Inn Nocturne, Robert Hunt |
Hunt's most powerful works in the show portray Irvington's resilience in the wake of sadness and loss. Two paintings, one a candlelight vigil after the tragic death of a local child as a result of a reckless driving accident and the other a gathering of patrons in the wake of a fire at a Washington Street brew pub.
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Everything's Burnt Except The Beer, Robert Hunt |
Both show a facility with multi-figural compositions and the handling of light.
Finally, a small recent landscape called (New Harmony Indiana) Trees and Water. The painting reminds me of the first Hunt paintings I saw in Cambridge City.
This latest picture was perhaps created during the annual paint-out and competition event in the southern Indiana town – First Brush of Spring – this past April.
The painting shows the enthusiastic brushwork of those earlier works. It further reveals that although Hunt has developed and increased his themes and designs, simple things, then and now, can still catch his eye.
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(New Harmony Indiana) Trees and Water, Robert Hunt |
Mark Diekhoff, June 2026
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