Finally at the age of 89 he was ready to explore the idea and I was commissioned by him to create sculptural clay figures that would seemingly reach out of his canvasses to become a three dimensional object.
I spent some time at his studio getting a feel for his work. He had a very distinctive style when painting his figures. I translated this feel as closely as i could into clay and after firing the pieces, dropped them off with him, along with his favorite colors in underglazes. Robert then proceeded to paint onto both the canvas and figure, in order to unify the two into one object.
Sadly Robert fell ill and shortly thereafter passed on, before we could complete the project, but I feel the works in progress show some exciting results, and it is a great shame his vision was not finally realized.
I was incredibly inspired by this time spent with a man of such humor and knowledge. Through this collaboration I have changed my whole way of viewing clay and have been encouraged to pursue this freedom of expression in my own work.
I am currently busy on some some small bronze figures as well as some clay sculptures...... Images to follow in the near future.
