A love of animals and country scenes inspires the art of a retired veterinarian

“Laura and Gerry’s Charolais,” a watercolor painted by retired veterinarian Robert Lynk, will grace the Sept. 15 cover of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. The Charolais in the painting were raised by Gerard Boone on his Golden Acres Farm in Westerlo.

For 37 years as a veterinarian, Robert Link traveled through the countryside of the Helderbergs and Catskills, tending to animals. Now he paints those scenes.

He lives in Delmar and enjoys time spent at his summer cottage overlooking Crystal Lake in Rensselaerville.

Lynk’s paintings and giclée prints — fine-art digital prints made on an inkjet printer — will be exhibited in a number of local venues this fall. Barring rain on Sept. 13, many will be shown at the Delmar Farmer’s Market in the Bethlehem Art Association booth.

In October his “Pieter Winne 1720 House” will be exhibited for the first time in the Bethlehem Town Hall. Other paintings will hang in the Northwest Hall of the Bethlehem Public Library throughout October.

As a rule, three or four Lynk paintings adorn the walls of the Delmar Animal Hospital, his gallery. His website, robertlynk.com, was launched earlier this month.

Lynk’s painting of Westerlo cows, “Laura and Gerry’s Charolais,” will grace the Sept. 15 cover of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. The Journal, published twice each month, is distributed nationally. Each cover features an animal discussed in that issue.

Charolais are beef animals of French origin. The Charolais in the painting were raised by Gerard Boone on his Golden Acres Farm in Westerlo. Boone is married to Dr. Laura Tenney, Lynk’s associate at the Delmar Animal Hospital.

Lynk, Boone, and Tenney are well acquainted with the Altamont Fair. This year, Lynk entered four watercolor paintings. Boone had twice as many grain and grass entries — stalks of silage corn and small grains such as barley, oats, rye and wheat.

Both men received blue and red ribbons. Tenney’s quilted wall hanging received a People’s Choice award as well as a blue ribbon.

When Lynk retired from his veterinary practice in 1998, he began painting and for a decade was president of the Bethlehem Art Association.

His love of farm animals is rooted in his upbringing. Lynk grew up near Sharon Springs on a dairy farm that has been in the family since 1859. He is a graduate of both the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University. He's a longtime member of the board of the Cornell Club of the Greater Capital District. 

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