Memorial service

Seneca Lake, morning after the memorial.


Seneca Lake, the evening of the memorial service.


In this place / no family no friends / the emperor no longer looks back / his court all eastward bound / i remain / with the fields and the mountain and the / bright clear river / under long clouds with small trees / together we celebrate the chyrsanthemum festival / while my friends await me / at the luyong gate

HWS site

College Mourns Loss

Studio in a barn

Show invitations

John in Crete

With Ariel, in front of the habor at Hania






At Mallia, a Minoan site on Crete

Sitting under an olive at the site of ancient Gortyn (the temple of Isis)

Family photos

Blue Mtn Gallery, NYC 1994


Los Angeles, Christmas, 1995

From John's Wang Wei series: poems by Wang Wei (AD 701–761), translations and illustrations by John

as the sun's waning light / hits the remains of the shower / birds fly home / through the evening mist


on the lake as i turn my head / white clouds enfold the blue mountains


old friends are no longer here / han river still flows east / where is the old man xiang-yang / his village forsaken / only the mountains and river remain


birds in flight in an open sky / autumn colors returning to the mts / up and down up and down hua zi gang / year after year hill after hill / desolate journeys without end.

more photos

Jonh in front of his row house in Geneva:

John Loftus at 70 show site

"John Loftus at 70" at Hobart and Wm Smith Colleges, September 1991

from the Hobart website:

John Loftus
Professor Emeritus of Art 1967-1995

Professor Emeritus John Loftus has described himself as “buoyant malcontent”—a man at odds with the world around him yet still productive. However, John's teacher and legendary painter, Hans Hoffman, understood his former pupil in a different way. He saw a novice painter who persevered despite his surroundings, and recognized in him an artist with a unique vision who faced the world courageously. In 1940, he entered Southern Illinois University, studying history and philosophy. John had completed his sophomore year when his studies were interrupted by a call to service in the United States Army. He served in the Signal Corps in New Guinea and the Philippines. He later returned to SIU and graduated in 1946. His experiences as an art educator include the Calhoun School, the University of Colorado and Ohio State University, where he was co-chairman of the Studio Humanities area. He spent 1963 to 1967 at the Philadelphia College of Art, then was recruited to become head of the art department at Hobart and William Smith. At the Colleges, John taught studio art and art history. In addition to the long-lived, perennial Color and Composition, he was the instructor for various painting and drawing classes, designed for budding artists and non-art majors alike. He stepped down as department head in 1973 but continued on as a professor at the Colleges until 1995.

In 1991, the Colleges celebrated Loftus and his work with a show at the Field House Gallery, “John Loftus at 70.” Today, we honor the man, the artist, the “buoyant malcontent” and teacher yet again with the Distinguished Faculty Award.

John Loftus died Thursday night, 25 September, 2008