Several years ago, Robert Lynk was passing a field in Westerlo when he decided to stop and take a picture.
The field was one that encompassed Golden Acres Farm, which is owned by friends Gerard Boone and his wife, Dr. Laura Tenney. Several French beef cattle, called Charolais, were leisurely ambling about the field, and Lynk thought the peaceful scene would make for a good painting. He took the picture and saved it for later.
“I record things that could be materials for painting,” said Lynk, a former veterinarian from Delmar. “I’ll take a snap shot and keep it until I feel like painting.”
Lynk eventually did paint the scene and gave the original to his daughter. She then asked for a second one to hang up in the waiting room of her office.
“I keep an album filled with pictures of my past paintings, and at one point, my wife remarked how I must love painting the pasture scene,” said Lynk, 82. “I didn’t know what she meant at first.”
Lynk then counted the number of times he had painted the cattle in the field of Golden Acres Farm. He’s now up to seven and likens it to Monet’s lilies. “Sometimes artists just have that thing they keep coming back to.”
It was at his family’s suggestion he entered the scene to potentially be a cover for the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. Published twice each month and sent to veterinarians across the country, each cover features a painting that can somehow be associated with one of the articles inside.
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Lynk didn’t start painting until 1994.
The wife of a friend from veterinary school had become very proficient in watercolor. He signed up for a workshop she was hosting. It was there Lynk first learned about primary colors, since his former art teacher had been enlisted during World War II and he was never taught those lessons.
“I got by with doodling,” said Lynk. “I always thought I had been pretty good so I wanted to do more.”
When he retired in 1998, he immediately signed up for remedial arts classes at Hudson Valley Community College. He signed up for whatever classes he could take, including life drawing.
“Imagine my surprise when I walked in and it was nude people,” he laughed.
Lynk stayed in the course, and when he was done with HVCC, started the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops in Greenville. He was also president of the Bethlehem Arts Association for nearly a decade.
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It had been a year since Lynk had sent in his submission to the JAVMA, and he still hadn’t heard back. That was when he decided to give a call to the publication.
“I joked with the woman how I was in my 80s and I wanted to see the cover before my temperature dropped,” said Lynk.
That’s when he was told the cover was scheduled for September.
Lynk’s painting called “Laura and Gerry’s Charolais” was on the cover of the Sept. 15 issue. It accompanied an article on bovine virus in alpacas.
“It was exciting to see after all that time,” said Lynk. “It’s a painting of land and animals owned by people I know and respect, and it’s also a great pastoral theme.”
The Delmar painter has two upcoming shows. Some of his paintings will be displayed at the Bethlehem Public Library throughout October. In the same month, Lynk will display one of his newer paintings at Town Hall in an exhibit with the Bethlehem Arts Association. The exhibit will feature places in Bethlehem, and at his wife’s suggestion Lynk painted what is thought to be the oldest building in the town, the Pieter Winne House of 1720.
For more information, visit www.robertlynk.com.
