LEGACY

As a weekend and summer resident of Nantucket since the 90s Robert Miklos has rediscovered and interpreted scenes of the island that have inspired artists for over 100 years. Attempting to connect with Nantucket’s rich legacy, he records the contemporary condition of the island from his own perspective.  

Miklos was fortunate enough to be introduced  to the painters of the Artist Colony when he participated in the Artist Association of Nantucket’s first Plein Air Festival in 2013. Open to members and non-members alike, the assignment was to paint from locations on a map frequented by Artist Colony members of the 30s and 40s. He painted Gas Tanks, influenced by  Ruth Haviland Sutton’s oil painting from a similar viewpoint. The watercolor was awarded a Frank Swift Chase Medal and shortly thereafter Miklos  became a member of AAN. Other Colony artists that inspire Miklos are Anne Ramsdell Congdon, C. Robert Perrin and Doris Riker Beer, as well as modernists such as Philip Hicken from the 45 Group.

The Nantucket artist most admired by Miklos is John Austin who painted on Nantucket from 1973 to his passing in 2001. Austin, like his mentor Edward Hopper, found interest and excitement in the ordinary and commonplace such as views of docks, piers, boatyards and Coast Guard stations, rather than the typical images of beach scenes and seascapes painted by his contemporaries

Marshall Gardiner Postcards

John Austin Paintings

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