Painter. Visual Culture professor. Tolkien aficionado. Proud dad. Expat New Yorker in Maine since ‘97.
🗣️NO AI!!!
Following2.8K
Followers5.2K
Engagement4.03%
Avg likes180
Avg comments32
About Rob Sullivan
Rob Sullivan (@robertsullivanart) is an Artist creator on Instagram. The account has 5,170 followers and 352 published posts. Recent posts average 180 likes and 32 comments, an engagement rate of 4.03%.
Rob Sullivan belongs to the nano tier, the band usually drawn between 1,000 and 10,000 followers. Rob Sullivan follows 2,833 accounts, so the audience is roughly 1.8 times the size of the list followed. Rob Sullivan uses an Instagram professional account. Flinque files Rob Sullivan under a single category, Artist.
The Instagram bio for Rob Sullivan runs to 17 words across 2 lines. Emoji sit alongside the words. The latest activity Flinque has on record for Rob Sullivan dates from December 2025.
Story Highlights
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352 Posts
Of the 10 most recent posts shown for Rob Sullivan, 7 are carousels, 2 are single images and 1 is a video. That mix leans toward carousels. 352 published posts give Rob Sullivan a moderate archive on Instagram. Against the audience, that is roughly 15 followers for each post published. Rob Sullivan also keeps 2 story highlights on the profile. All 10 carry captions, averaging 156 words each. The captions are written mainly in English. Words that recur across them include swipe, figure, representationalrealism, these and wanted. The captions tag #representationalrealism, #contemporaryrealism, #figurepainting, #landscapepainting and #mainelandscape.
Non linear
🎶It’s the artist life for me 🎵
Find the whole chat on my YouTube channel
#artlife #artprofessor #livingartist #advice #inspiration“Demorāta” is oil on canvas, 20 x 40 in. There is definitely something in the air these days that makes us feel like we are in need of rescue, but it seems we’ve been stranded in a kind of eternal delay. The isolation that we all experienced six years ago this month is lingering still; people feel more alone than ever. Years ago I explored ideas of transcendence, rescue, and the numinous using visual signifiers of flight as the motif. I’d painted a helicopter, suspended, its rotors stopped - as a high-speed shutter would capture them. I wanted to test the ambiguity in the idea that this image was somehow messianic: does it signify rescue, or a deliverance? Or does it fall short because of the neutral presentation? This new painting ties into that old one, acting as a metaphorical, ground-level experience, and also updated to reflect that which we are currently feeling in these difficult times.
Swipe for some close-ups, preliminary drawing, and the old painting that I’m talking about (probably from 2011 or so). I just want to mention: the face on this figure is about an inch high - not the easiest scale in terms of portraiture!
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#representationalrealism #contemporaryrealism #figurepainting #landscapepainting“Cyphera” is oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. I’ve had this image in my head for a long time now, and I’m glad to finally get it down in paint. This may look like a fictional setting, but it’s a real place — an installation on the far Downeast Maine coast called the Very Low Frequency Transmitter or VLF. The 2 million-watt-powered array sends transmissions to US Navy submarines all over the world. It’s hard to process the scale of these towers: imagine 26 Eiffel Towers in the middle of nowhere on the very edge of the open ocean. It’s an intimidating and other-worldly sight. If you hadn’t already guessed, this piece is very much a pictorial homage to Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World” (1948). It’s not often I do direct homage works like this, but Wyeth was a huge influence on me from my earliest days as a painter, and I wanted to honor that here. It is compositionally similar, with the pinkish tone lifted from the same light salmon color of Christina Olson’s dress. Also similar is that both pictures are Maine coastal scenes: the Olson house being on the Cushing peninsula, and the VLF being on the Cutler peninsula. In my work, however, it is less clear towards exactly where the figure’s gaze is directed, unlike the house and barn clearly being the recipients of Christina’s focus in Wyeth’s original work. Without being too specific, I wanted to craft an interesting dialogue between the two works regarding their similarities as well as their differences. On its own, I want this work to also create an interior dialogue through metaphor and allusion, given that the nature of the VLF has a lot of worldly implications. The monochrome gray of the fog and the atmosphere it creates brings a certain tone to the proceedings; a technical narrative, if you will. I will let you parse out the rest.
Swipe for a closeup, the preliminary drawing, and another look at Wyeth’s famous painting, just in case you forgot.
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#representationalrealism #contemporaryrealism #figurepainting #landscapepainting #mainelandscape“Perācta” is oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in. We see a figure, drenched by the rain and transfixed by the distant storm, coming to the terminus of an island shoreline, having made it through the tempest to land’s end. (Actual location: Adam’s Head on Richmond Island, Maine.) These are literal things, as well as literal translations of the title, but I believe there is more to it than that. I’ll leave it to you to complete (or call into question) whatever narratives may be/ not be happening. Big thanks to Kristina Nikityuk and Anna A. for the photographic inspiration and collaboration on the figure. Swipe for a closeup and WIP shots.
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#representationalrealism #contemporaryart #contemporaryrealism #landscapepainting #mainelandscape“Sorena” is 12 x 18 inches, oil on panel. Not Latin, but Middle English for “rise into the air.” You can see the etymology for “soar” in there. The main color has a base in Mars Violet Deep, aka Caput Mortuum (dead head), while the geometric shape coming down is Phthalo Turquoise — it’s fairly complimentary, but also truly vibrant with an unrestrained chromatic intensity. Together, they form a technical narrative that frames the figure against the sky in a like-for-like pairing. Many thanks to the wonderful model, Bianca Temperini for generously providing the inspiration for this piece. (Swipe for the drawing bit)
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#representationalrealism #contemporarypainting #portrait #portraitpainting #figurepainting“Insilva” is oil on panel, 9 x 12 in. I wanted to have a few smaller works available for the upcoming show, and this is one of them. The model for this is the incomparable Maud Gamelon, whose visage embodies that of the Pre-Rapahelite era (seen in the the works of Rossetti, Waterhouse, and the like). I wanted to integrate her bright, auburn hair into the palette and have it be a conceptual analogue to the predominance of the forest green. In this way, the colors, but also the figure, are interacting & intertwining inside the pine-dense environment, referencing a feeling of a full immersion in the natural world — a becoming one with the woods.
(Swipe for the preliminary drawing.)
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#representationalpainting #representationalrealism #contemporaryart #contemporarypainting #contemporaryrealism portrait portraitpainting portraitart figurepainting landscapepaintingMost of the work from Disquieting/Troubling Calm series has been sold. Buuuut, as I discovered while trying to build my new site, I couldn’t find any high resolution pictures of them anywhere. Fortunately, I discovered an old hard drive and found that the original photography of these pieces was buried in there. Again, I was pleasantly surprised to revisit these at such a close inspection level. This one had gone under a shorter moniker, but I’m restoring it to its full title, which is “Metastrophe,” 18 x 24 in. Given the events of late, I think you can figure out the meaning. When the ocean rolls up to the mountain lookout tower, and that tower has caught fire, we’re all in for it. This is charcoal and oil on frosted Mylar. Kind of a difficult medium to work in, but I was pretty ambitious with this series a decade ago. Swipe for a close-up of the fire (which is the only oil painted part).
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#noai #noaiart #oilpainting #landscape #endoftheworldNot sure why, but this painting disappeared from my timeline. I’ve been poring over images in various places while building a new site and noticed that this was missing. Anyway, “Rosea Sonitus” is 24 x 36 in, oil on panel. Sold this a while ago, so I enjoyed revisiting it. Big shoutout to Da Vinci and Holbein for the inspiration!
Swipe for a few closeups of the face, hand, and the anamorphic mushroom cloud that’s on the table.
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#davinci #holbein #noaiart #oilpaintingEnd-of-year post with Billy being my avatar for the centerpiece. Very odd year in that I found that my health (post-covid immunocompromisation) is declining at a very slow but noticeable rate. That realization truly threw off my mental state for a while, plunging my work rate into a torpor. At some point, I snapped out of it. It might have been my decision to leave academia (probably for good). My disillusionment with higher ed weighed on me every time I thought about whether or not I was making a difference in the face of disengaged administrations and the tacit acceptance of AI generated art & research as legitimate work. I can’t be a part of that. Instead, I threw myself into the studio and produced 14 (or so) new works, which is a LOT for me, considering the time I need to finish things. There was a stoppage around Thanksgiving, as my best friend left this world, and I faced a studio without my Billy. But his doggo angel presence pointed me in the direction of a new pal in need, and this Christmas, Chase entered my life, and he is a gift, no mistake. 2026 will see a big solo show from me at Nadra Clark Gallery, and I will be busy working towards that. The plan is 20+ pieces with most of them never before shown in Maine. I will keep everyone apprised of this, of course. We’re looking at a mid-September opening, so stay tuned. Happy New Year to all!“Portrait of Billy”- 12 x 12 inches, oil on panel. This was my way of processing Billy’s recent and untimely passing (11/28). I still miss him terribly. His face and silly mannerisms were already etched in my heart, but I suppose my making this piece helped me catalogue those things in the artist part of my mind - a kind of completion, if that’s even the right word. He loved going back and forth from the cool of the studio to the sunniest part of the yard. I wanted to capture his ease and languor in that activity, as well as the unique way the sun reflected a warm, red-brown tint in his near-black fur. Love and miss you, my best boy. ❤️🩹
Rob Sullivan's engagement
Rob Sullivan's engagement rate on Instagram is 4.03%, between 3% and 6%, or 3 to 6 likes and comments per 100 followers. On a typical post that comes to about 1 like or comment for every 25 followers. Comments stay close to likes on Rob Sullivan's posts, at 180 likes and 32 comments on average, about 5.6 likes per comment.
Engagement rate
4.03%
0%10%+
Avg likes
180
Avg comments
32
Interactions : followers
1 : 25
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These answers about Rob Sullivan are generated from the Instagram profile data Flinque holds for the account.
Who is Rob Sullivan?
Rob Sullivan (@robertsullivanart) is an Artist creator on Instagram. Rob Sullivan uses an Instagram professional account. The Instagram bio for Rob Sullivan runs to 17 words across 2 lines.
How many followers does Rob Sullivan have?
Rob Sullivan has 5,170 followers on Instagram (5.2K). Rob Sullivan follows 2,833 accounts, so the audience is roughly 1.8 times the size of the list followed. 352 published posts give Rob Sullivan a moderate archive on Instagram.
What is Rob Sullivan's engagement rate?
Rob Sullivan's engagement rate on Instagram is 4.03%, between 3% and 6%, or 3 to 6 likes and comments per 100 followers. On a typical post that comes to about 1 like or comment for every 25 followers. Comments stay close to likes on Rob Sullivan's posts, at 180 likes and 32 comments on average, about 5.6 likes per comment.
What does Rob Sullivan post about on Instagram?
Flinque files Rob Sullivan under a single category, Artist. Of the 10 most recent posts shown for Rob Sullivan, 7 are carousels, 2 are single images and 1 is a video. The 10 recent Instagram captions Flinque holds for Rob Sullivan repeatedly use the words swipe, figure, representationalrealism, these and wanted. Rob Sullivan's captions carry hashtags such as #representationalrealism, #contemporaryrealism and #figurepainting. Rob Sullivan writes those captions mainly in English. Rob Sullivan keeps 2 story highlights, which open with a free Flinque account.
How do I contact Rob Sullivan for a collaboration?
Rob Sullivan's contact details are not published on Flinque's public profile. The Instagram bio links to 1 external site, and a free Flinque account opens that link. Brands with a free Flinque account can shortlist Rob Sullivan and use Flinque's outreach tools wherever a contact route is on file.
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