He started drawing at the age of 15 with the ambition of becoming a graphic designer. However, this was not to be, and instead he stumbled on the idea of technical illustration. For this he studied at Bourneville College of Art and Design where he was awarded the prize for Student of the Year in Illustration presented by the Duke of Kent. On leaving College he went to work in the Lake District where he was engaged in the drawing of parts of Sellafield. From here he moved on to Germany where he was doing mainly contract work for Mercedes, then on return to England he started to work on illustrations for Rolls Royce aero engines.

It was after his return to England that he started to paint again. He’d always enjoyed fine art as it gave him a release from the regimentation of technical drawing and, as Rob says, when somebody bought one of his paintings he was inspired to continue. A local gallery who was selling the occasional piece of his work then put him in touch with Sally Mitchell Fine Arts who subsequently published his first two highly successful limited edition prints, The Mobsters and Ticker Tape Trouble in the autumn of 1995. This was followed by The One That Got Away, The Magnificent Seven and by a series of open edition prints.

Rob’s interests are classic motor sport, hill walking, squash and animals. One of his first pictures was of his friend’s Lancia Beta for which he charged the enormous sum of ?5, but he very proudly announced to us that he got ?0 for the second picture from the same person. It was primarily his great love of animals that led him to Sally Mitchell Fine Arts and at the young age of only 31 he has what promises to be a great and long career ahead of him, so watch this space.