Plum painter puts particularly creative perspective into familiar themes

In a time-honored spousal activity, Bob and Nicole Freyer were relaxing in front of the television, watching a show called “Pumpkin Wars.”

“It’s not that hard,” Bob said about the participants’ creative endeavors. “They’re just connecting lines.”

To which Nicole replied, “I’ve never seen you do anything artistic.”

Actually, Bob had studied commercial art in college, a pursuit that came to an abrupt end following a disagreement with a faculty member. So he decided to show his wife.

“That day, I went out and bought some art supplies,” he said. “I drew her the Grinch, and then I drew a self-portrait.”

Since then, he hasn’t stopped. The Plum resident’s work has been featured in numerous solo and group art shows around Western Pennsylvania and as far away as California, and he has won several awards.

Freyer has a home studio that he admits could be bigger, given his prodigious painting output. His pieces, many of substantial size, cover the majority of wall space, to go along with others mounted on easels, plus more inside the house proper.

But there always is room in the studio for his children, Annabel and Joseph.

“I really enjoy painting with my kids, and for the last couple of years, I’ve kind of just been embracing my inner child, painting things that I like and how I want to see it, really,” he said. “A lot of my commissions are just based on my interpretation of a subject, and I have a lot of artistic freedom. That’s how I like to do it.”

During April, for example, he worked on fulfilling an order of 11 paintings for a customer in Maryland who pretty much offered free rein.

“His friend found me on Instagram, and he bought five paintings off me,” Freyer said, and the Maryland man subsequently “saw the artwork, and he wants me to basically decorate his house with my art.”

Freyer’s style runs the gamut from lifelike portraits — he painted one of galactic bounty hunter Boba Fett for a May 4 “Star Wars”-themed exhibit at .5 Gallery in Etna — to inventive takes on ostensibly familiar themes, including members of the Animal Kingdom.

“In a lot of my paintings, you’ll see bears and rabbits,” he said. “There’s something about them that I just adore.”

Regarding bears, one of his recent endeavors states “ain’t nothing going to break my stride,” the words broken up by a centrally located ursine figure of the stuffed variety, with stitches liberally applied, including over the eyes and mouth.

In 2018, a show of his work called Thoughts of Yesterday also featured paintings of teddy bears in various guises.

“The whole meaning behind this series was going through a tough time and thinking about my childhood, thinking about my dad,” he said about Robert Sr., who died in 2006, “and now my kids. It was just everything I experienced in my life kind of stitching together, in a way.

“The show was a success, and I sold almost every one of the paintings. That’s not why I paint, but it was nice to see people be familiar with it and understand what I was doing, and just get a feel of their perspective based on what I was doing.”

He’ll be doing a show in September at Ketchup City Creative in Sharpsburg, timed to coincide with the release of an India pale ale by Spring House Brewing Co. of Lancaster, a beer that will bear — pardon the expression — Freyer’s stamp.

“I submitted my artwork,” he said, and the brewer selected his entry for the IPA’s label. “It’s called Youth Gone Wild. It’s a little skeleton wearing a Pittsburgh Pirates hat, and he’s riding a big wheel and flames are coming out the back.”

Youth Gone Wild, by the way, also is the name of his Ketchup City exhibit.

As for the youngsters in the Freyer home, Annabel and Joseph are learning from their father, and vice versa.

“They’re both really big influences on myself and my art,” Bob said. “We try to be as creative as we can with them and allow them to express everything. And my daughter is turning out to be an amazing artist at this age.”

The guess is that her brother already is following suit.

For more information, visit bfreyerart.com.