Bill Smith
Artist and Art Historian
"Rob has always been a cerebral painter. The work looks immediate, spontaneous, and unplanned. But like Zen calligraphers before him, his rush to splatter paint is preceded by fitful nights of thoughtful contemplation. His mind rumbles over the reason to paint. His fingers practice colors like a pianist practicing Bach. There is a quietness before the explosion that educates the tendons connecting his mind to his arm. And we, in this age of webinars, blogs, and airbrushed microns, are graced with work that confirms again the value of paint on primed canvas; of color mixed by hand; of the tactile intimacy of painter, brush and subject.