How did you get into art?
I think that I have always been into it!
I don’t know about that, I know it is the kind of thing that every artist likes to think of in retrospect, but I think that the crystallisation of it came when I was about 17, when I realised that, if I became an artist, I would not have to sit exams any more. So, I guess that it is my anxiety that led me down this path!
But it was through doing this that I found a love of portraiture, and finding that I could create an accurate representation of the human face created a high that I guess I have been chasing ever since.
How did you develop your signature style?
My style has come from a combination of my desire to be a classical fine artist, and for also wanting to make grungy independent comics. I feel that what I have ended up with is something somewhere in the middle, probably closer to the latter!
I mean that is the broad strokes, but it has really been, as with all things, a matter of slowly collecting little bits of inspiration as one rolls along, in a sort of Katamari style. I got into graffiti, and the whole goth thing, and JG Ballard, and so on and so forth, with the bits that stuck coagulating into whatever my style has become!
Where do you typically find yourself taking inspiration from?
I would say that 99% of anything that inspires me comes entirely without my knowledge or consent! As with how my style developed, it is very much a matter of osmosis.
I can try to take inspiration from things on a conscious level, but at that point I find that is when my work feels most forced. I like to let things come when I am least expecting it, and this is also when it is usually the least convenient, unfortunately! I am sure that the source for most of my inspiration is from media, particularly cinema, more particularly the works of David Lynch and David Cronenberg.
However, I am currently finding most of my direct inspiration to be coming from my day job, where I am a gardener. I am very much inspired by birds at the moment, especially robins.
You have created work across a variety of media. Do you have a favourite medium at the moment?
Well, the simple answer to that is oil paint, which I find to be the most applicable for what I would really like to be creating.
However, living in a studio flat with my partner and lacking the financial means for a studio space really does not make that much of a possibility! The closest analogue to that, though, is digital, and I am absolutely indebted to my iPad and Procreate! I value the versatility and convenience of digital work, but I know that in my heart of hearts I really want to be creating my opus on a huge canvas.
Does your creative process change much when you switch from one medium to another?
Oh absolutely! Every medium has its strengths and weaknesses, and naturally one will play into them and adapt one’s style accordingly.
Oil paints are great, but it really does feel that one is playing the long game with them, as it can be very easy to make mistakes that have long term ramifications for the nature of the piece.
However, at the other end of the spectrum, digital allows for instant changes to the most heinous of mistakes. The negative to this, though, is that it quickly creates a sort of complacency that keeps one feeling somewhat disconnected from the piece. I feel that this is the issue wherein it becomes very hard to create something of tangible worth in a digital sphere.
Do you have a favourite piece you’ve made? What’s it like?
It would be incredibly difficult for me to pick a favourite! I know this is very pretentious, but I do see my artworks like my children!
Really, the pieces that are the most important to me are the pieces that are either of, or for, the people that I love. I don’t know what it says of me, I just find that I can communicate most clearly through my artwork, so therefore the pieces that are my favourites are the ones that communicate something that I have been otherwise unable to through my words and actions.
Besides that, I suppose it’s things where I have been able to create the idea that I am picturing with the greatest clarity. I have an oil painting in a Magritte style that I did relatively recently, of a woman whose head is a pigeon, of which I am definitely quite fond!
Do you have any particularly memorable commission pieces that you’ve made?
I always love the commission work that I get to do, as I find that the people who are willing to commission me are the ones who want to afford me the freedom to create something that has my own particular aesthetic, even if it is something like a portrait.
If I was to say the most purely memorable, though, I would say that it is the piece that I did for the BBC, for the drama, Murdered For Being Different. I would call it particularly interesting mostly because it required me to create a piece based from a mindset that I had since outgrown. At the time, I was in my early thirties, and was being asked to create a piece that reflected my mindset and aesthetics from a time which, whilst it was only really a decade prior, felt to be a lifetime ago. I suppose that would have been memorable in a different sense than the question intended, though!
Really, I always love and remember pieces that allow for that sense of aforementioned freedom.
What is your process like for bringing someone else’s ideas into reality?
I think that it depends entirely upon the person from whom the ideas are coming. I think that both parties in a commission need to be respectful of the collaborative nature of the endeavour.
I have, in the past, worked with people whose control of their idea was far too rigid, and it created a piece that was stifled by that attitude. However, I have also been guilty of taking the idea to a conclusion far removed from the initial idea, and that results in something nonsensical and self indulgent!
When the balance is right, though, the entire process is like magic. I have always been drawn to art as it does have an incredibly magical feel, of transmuting base elements into figurative gold, and this is doubled when being able to use these skills to bring someone else’s imagination to life.
What do you think is the secret to good art?
I think that good art is always communicating the unspeakable and unknowable, and I think that it is at its best when the artist is just letting it happen. I suppose that means that there really isn’t
bad art to me, then! This is not to say that I do not have my dislikes (Corporate Memphis can die in a hole), but I genuinely believe that it is impossible to create something without communicating an unspoken truth about oneself.
What do you hope people take away from your art?
The one thing I always want to have taken away from my art is a sense of levity. No matter what I am presenting.
This is not to say I am necessarily trying to be funny with my art, I just mean that I want to create things that make people feel lighter in themselves. Maybe that is through humour, but it could also be through connection, or inspiration.
I know that we live in a difficult world, and I think that what artists should strive for is to make it feel a little bit better. I know I can create things that can be ugly, and weird, but I really just want to make things that make people feel that, within them, they can see themselves, and I hope that they can see the better part of themselves.
Do you have any advice for anyone else hoping to become an artist?
I think the only piece of advice I could give is that it’s supposed to be fun to make art, and one always needs to remember this. We’ve all been drawing since we could write, and art is essential to our souls. If we lose the joy of it, then it isn’t for us anymore.
To see more of Rob’s work, you can follow him on Facebook and Instagram.
You can commission him to create art for your project here on Fiverr.
