Rohan Robinson

ARTIST STATEMENT

Many of my colleagues will describe their pursuit in painting as “only really painting one painting” others seem to produce painting after painting that appear very similar and unmistakable from the artist, a bit like playing the same pop song over and over again. Some believe that the more they read about art, the better they will become, if they paint every waking moment the better they will become, if they apply for every grant and enter every prize, the better known they will become, not necessarily so. I subscribe to the idea of sharpening the axe for 50 minutes and chopping for 10 rather than the other way around. Also a great Scottish artist once told me “Aaagghh Robbo, it’s 90% thinking and 10% doing…….”

I don’t like playing the same pop song over and over. Bores the hell out of me. Ignores everything else that is going on around. Repetition. More akin to producing product for the market rather than art. It’s easy to make product if you have only one idea.
I prefer to produce creative responses to my environment, what my sentiments dictate in an environment that is always changing, through it be travel or conscience, any new stimulus to question the way of looking at things, experiencing. Harking for a greater understanding of “The Big I Am”.

Painting is an extremely self indulgent pursuit, but the honesty of that pursuit is the hard part. To bare your arse/soul to the world is difficult. Painting is a thinking person’s game, not a game for decorators.
For me its the natural environment that that holds the key to the “bigger picture” I prefer to be immersed in that environment. “Down to the endless sea, let it wash all over me”. I spent a Victorian winter painting in 2.5m x 2.5m two sided tin shed, with a fire in a 44 gallon drum nearby, deep in the Otways. Just to get the cold in my bones…nah in reality that was all I had at the time, and there was work to do.


Rohan Robinson