Jon Lansberg About-Contact

I am an artist living and working in New York City.

I studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design. In my senior year I became interested in antique photographic processes such as gum bichromate and cyanotype. Gum bichromate can produce a result that is a hybrid between painting and photography since it involves printing with sensitized watercolor on watercolor paper. The process also lends itself well to hand coloring.

After graduating college I worked as a photographer for 13 years, specializing in corporate audio visual work. I was more interested in photography than in painting at the time, and it seemed natural to work in the field. At the same time I have continued to work at combining the techniques of gum bichromate, cyanotype, hand coloring, infrared, solarization. More recently I have been using Photoshop in combination with or in place of these approaches.

I have continued to paint and draw, and recently have been doing black & white book illustrations, mainly for fantasy and science fiction titles.

The Illustration portion of the website shows recent jobs; all published work. (Except for the Buster Keaton drawing – I just added that in because I like it). I set this website up mainly so that I would have a place online to show my illustration portfolio.

The Photography page shows my favorite personal work, showing all the different processes I use.

The Painting page shows a selection of personal work. All the pictures are oil paintings except for the picture of the Ninth Street PATH Station, which was done using Liquid Light on raw linen, and then painted into using oil paint.

The Blog part of the site is a “picture of the day” type blog. I intend to select from whatever I am working on or think is interesting that day, and it may include photography, drawings or paintings.