About Robert

Robert was born at Ross Priory Lodge, Gartocharn, 1947 and attended Bearsden Academy, Glasgow.

He worked as an electrical sign designer at Laird Neon Signs, then as a commercial artist  with MacLehose University Press, Glasgow. 

Got fired.

Robert attended Glasgow School of Art from 1967-71. Teaching Diploma from Jordanhill 71-72. He also taught Art and Design for 34 years in Renfrew  

High and Williamwood High.

Retired in 2006 

Robert has exhibited in: 

• Maclaurin Gallery, Ayr 
• Paisley Art Institute 
• The Affordable Art Fair, Battersea, London 
• The Castle Gallery, Rothesay 
• Compass Gallery, Glasgow 
• Glasgow Herald Open Exhibition. 
• Teachers Art Exhibition, Paisley 
• Glasgow School of Art 
• Stirling University 
• House for an Art Lover 
• Awarded the Costley and Costley prize at the Maclaurin Gallery 2013. 
• Had a solo show at the Beresford Gallery, Ayr 2014. 
• Has works in collections throughout the U.K. and U.S.A.

Robert has a fascination with time, light and space and is currently painting a series of pictures on the theme of “Fallen Angels, Forgotten Film Stars and Secular Saints.”  

These are carefully researched narrative pictures, having a background story and a meaning beyond that which is apparent. The paintings are composed of separate images of actual locations, objects and individuals. These are combined to produce a valid but non- existent reality. 

The story can be accepted by the viewer, re-interpreted, added to, ignored, or some or all of the above.   

His work is influenced by Surrealism, Symbolism and Victorian Paintings and are usually small and intimate pieces around A4 size. Some are miniatures. Some have lettering.  

He produces around 5 or 6 paintings a year using oils on 425 gm watercolour paper or board and only works in natural light.  

He also produces works in the Trompe-L’oeil style, (French; to deceive the eye). These works have a variety of images. 

He is married with four grown up children and lives in Broomhill, Glasgow. 

He is licensed to wear high heels in Carmel, California.  

He does not like photos of himself.

This painting shows Jacqueline Logan, a star of the silent screen now all but forgotten. 

She was born in Texas in 1902 and started her acting career in Colorado before going to Chicago, telling her family she was visiting an uncle. In fact she became a dancer in a theatre, lying about her age to do so. 

Undeterred by a big family row she left there and went to New York appearing on stage and in musicals on Broadway. 

Moving to Hollywood she would appear in over sixty films, her most famous role being Mary Magdalene in Cecil B. De Mille’s 1927 classic “The King of Kings.”

Like many other silent film stars Logan was largely unsuccessful in talkies and turned to writing and directing films, gaining good reviews. 

She retired from the industry in 1934, and died in 1983.

The picture is oil on board and is painted in the Trompe-L’oeil  style, (French, to deceive the eye). The title combines the word and the image.

She is shown in a glamorous pose wearing a lace dress with a simple pearl necklace and a rose, (Rosa Mary Magdalene) pinned to  her shoulder strap. The makeup she is wearing is appropriate for the era.

A relatively new concept it was popularised by companies like Max Factor and the recent inventions of the compact, metal lipstick containers and eye shadow, the latter replacing home-made concoctions of Vaseline and soot !

The colours and shades available were much more limited than those of today. 

She is wearing peach face powder, rose coloured rouge and blue eye shadow. Her eye liner is brown and her lipstick is dark rose in the popular cupid’s bow style of the time. She wears her hair short in a bob, the daring hairstyle of the time.

"Once Upon a Time; (Plain Vanilla.)"

The model for this painting is Bessie Love, an American film actress who made her name in the silent and early talkies, playing characters ranging from innocent young girls to flappers.

The picture has her gazing curiously, enquiringly at us, with the hint of a smile playing on her lips. She rests her head on her hand, her auburn hair falling loosely down over her shoulders.

Behind her we can see part of the young star cluster N.G.C. 663 in the constellation of Cassiopeia. The constellation is named after the mythological Greek Queen who was noted for her beauty.

Staying with the astronomical theme, halo-like segments of a faint broken arc can be seen surrounding her head. This is Abell 2218, a powerful gravitational lens showing a distorted image of some of the oldest and most distant galaxies in the universe.

The golden halo of Roman style lettering around her head is Latin for "plain vanilla big bang origin model." This refers to the simplest version of the Big Bang Theory concerning the beginning of the universe.

She appears to be asking us if we believe this. 

A Small White butterfly silently flits amongst the stars reminding us of the "Butterfly Effect," whereby small initial conditions can ultimately have massive and dramatic results out of all proportion to their cause.