About the Artist
Mitchell L. Kolbe entered the professional art world at the age of fifteen helping his artist father with pen and ink illustrations. While in high school summer jobs included working for an ad agency and running huge printing presses for a packaging and art design firm. During his senior year of high school he was one of ten in the country awarded the national art merit scholarship and attended the Art Student's League of N.Y.C. On weekends he studied at the Salmagundi Club. When he wasn't attending classes he discovered his passion for painting outdoors or en plein air, in Central Park, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, Coney island and the streets of Manhattan. After leaving art school he moved to Atlanta Ga. where he worked on the restoration of the Cyclorama. A diorama that depicted the battle of Atlanta during the American Civil War. Work soon followed in the field of graphics, illustration, murals, sculpture, and fine art.
Kolbe's work, like many artist , has evolved over the years, and has gone from the tight realism that illustration work required to a looser and more painterly style. As of late he strives more for suggestion rather than the literal, so as to bring the observer into the process thus allowing them to connect the dot's for themselves. His style could best be described as lying somewhere between representational art and impressionism with leanings towards tonalism, and yet always striving to find his own unique voice somewhere in the mix.
Artists that have inspired Kolbe over the years are many and varied and range from Rembrandt, George Inness, Sorolla, and Sargent, to Zorn, Bellows, N. C Wyeth, and Dean Cornwell. The Russian school of art and American illustrators all influenced Kolbe to some extent.
Never limiting himself to just one genre, he enjoys painting everything from portraiture, and the human figure, to landscapes, still life, and abstract art. Inspiration comes from every imaginable source and in the most unexpected places.
I addition to painting, Kolbe also sculpts which is something he never had formal education in but always had a passion for. This sculpture work led to building diorama's for the U. S.Fish and Wildlife Service and creating fiberglass and plastic plants for E.P.C.O.T. at Disney World, then creating and selling a series of pirate sculptures in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean gift shop. Other work included a life sized bronze Epiphany Cross Diver for the Greek Orthodox Church in Tarpon Springs, Fl. and a life sized bronze Greek Olympic Torch Bearer. Many other sculpture commissions followed over the years and he is currently working on a series for himself based on the illustrations of A. B. Frost, Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and Brer Bear.
Some other career highlights include sculpture and murals for Kennedy's Space Center visitors center, murals for Universal Studios, Portofino Bay Hotel, sculptures for the 1996 Summer Olympics, The Disney Family Museum, and many background murals for trade show exhibits such as G.E., Lear Jet, U. S. Wildlife Service, and N.A.S.A. Space Center. His works can be found in the collections of the Arch bishop of Constantinople, The Florida State Governors Club, the permanent collection of the Art Students League, NYC, Antonio Banderas, and Richard Kessler's Grand Bohemian Autograph Collection Hotels, to mention just a few.
His work is presently represented by the galleries of the Kessler Grand Bohemian Autograph Collection Hotels. Currently he maintains a working studio in his home near Asheville, N. C. and in the River Arts District , at 362 Depot St., Asheville, N. C. Contact him through Facebook or www.mitchkolbe.com, email at [email protected]
