Brrr it sure is getting chilly! Grab your favourite hat and make the most out of it!
Happy National Hat Day!
...Okay, full disclosure: yesterday was National Hat Day, but let's be honest, we should celebrate it two days in a row. (Who am I kidding, I've been wearing a hat every day this winter.)
Do you have a favourite hat?
We love featuring various artists on our blog. The world is full of so many talented people and celebrating everyone's gifts is one of our favourite things. If you think of anyone who you think would like to be featured, shoot us a message!
Jazz Trane: Tom Robertson
Each work I undertake is an invitation to experiment with colour, texture, form, and light in order to ignite passion, challenge perspectives and stimulate the imagination of the viewers.
I believe art needn’t conform to specific rules. new types of work require new and innovative methods. Over the years, this journey of discovery has broadened my creativity and sustained my love for artistic expression.
Through art I hope to encourage my viewers to explore the breadth, length, depth and height of their own being, and the mysteries of life.
- Thomas Stewart Robertson
Light On The Ice: Tom Robertson
Moonlight Serenade: Tom Robertson
Introduce yourself. Where are you from?
Thomas Stewart Robertson was born in Toronto and raised in Brantford, Ontario, where his interest in art began as a young boy. When he was four, a stranger gave him his first drawing pencil – a gift for politely waiting while the elder person descended a flight of stairs. Thomas soon discovered his enthusiasm for drawing was limitless – so much so, that when his older brother received a set of oil paints the following year, he claimed it as his own.
Tell us about your work. How/When did you get started with your work?
As a kid he was always painting and drawing. His High School mentor Gary Woodward encouraged him by connecting him to do a co-op work experience at Gould Outdoor Advertising which specialized in hand painted billboards. There he met Louis Crowe who was thrilled with the talent Tom brought to the table. After school, Louis offered Tom a job working full time as an apprentice. He worked with that company for over 26 years. They trained him in all aspects of art and media and he excelled in figurative and portraiture paintings. After a significant event in his life, he left the company to pursue his own work and passions.
Why did you choose this career path? What made you interested in painting and drawing?
Art and painting has always been a passion since he was a child.
Who is your inspiration?
The realism of Leonardo DaVinci and Michelangelo and renaissance artists all provided immense inspiration in Tom’s early years. As he aged, the surrealism of artists like Salvador Dali, Lawren Harris and the group of seven expanded the expression that Tom used in his work. Today, Tom tries to capture the nuances of human longing with the seen and unseen worlds of spirit and imagination.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
In 10 years, he wants to have the space and creative freedom to travel, to paint and to explore the vast contrasts in nature and spontaneously create as he is inspired. Exploring different medias like photography and sculpture to capture his ideas.
Northern Light with Full Moon: Tom Robertson
“Robertson has created a series of paintings in which rose petals gently fall from a rose bud, the paramount symbol of sensual love. Their arousing red shapes float through a blackened abyss of temptation, despair and sorrow creating dramatic expression of loss and absence.”
-Garry Burns - Art Critic Brantford Expositor
“I have watched Tom develop from a young budding artist into a dedicated and beautiful painter, with the ability to express his wonderful soul within his paintings, in such a way as to touch us emotionally.”
-Sandra White – Graphic Arts Instructor, Master Illustrator & Fine Artist, Mohawk & Clark Colleges
"Tom Robertson is on a lifelong search for beauty. His subjects are chosen because he sees in them, a beauty that he longs to disclose to his viewer. His disclosure process is meticulous, careful and soulful and Robertson sets a standard that helps share his own vision of beauty with others."
-Marguerite Larmand, B.A. Art, M.Sc.Ed., Installation Artist, Simcoe Ontario
Misty Morn: Tom Robertson
Mixed Messages: Tom Robertson
Mystery Writer: Tom Robertson
Tom is soo soo talented so please check out more of his work and follow him on social media:
Facebook: Thomas Stewart Robertson
Instagram: robertsonfinearts
Web: www.robertsonfinearts.ca
Ph: 519-754- 8926
Email: tsrobertson@gmail.com