Robert Gamblin Studio

I've chosen to paint the landscape because we have easy access to it. Not only in the sense that it is always there waiting to be painted, but also because we share an appreciation for the beauty of the light on the land. In addition, a landscape painting lends itself to exploring the undefined border between representation and abstraction.

I love spending time out of doors watching the light on the land. The feelings from these experiences and my long and deep relationship to color are the starting points for my work.

I am continually amazed that these fleeting effects of light can be permanently captured in paint on canvas. My work then finds its way to people's homes and offices where those feelings can be shared by all who engage with the work.

Robert's first mentor was David Foster at the University of Oregon in the late 1960's. Dave was a student of Bauhaus instructor, Lazlo Maholy-Nagy. Dave taught that image making was a medium of communication. For Robert this implied having something to say in a manner that can be understood.

Robert was accepted in 1971 into the graduate painting program at San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco California. While most students at SFAI were neo expressionistic studio painters, Robert saw the beauty in Golden Gate Park. He began his life long relationship of painting landscapes at that time and then dropped out of SFAI. He spent the next year in Europe visiting the major art capitals from London to Istanbul to Crete to see for himself the foundations of art in history.

Wolf Kahn was Robert's next mentor. Wolf was a student of the abstract expressionist painter, Hans Hoffman. Robert learned how to take a leap from painting a landscape into painting a personal form of the landscape based on color and feelings.

Around 1980, Robert was looking for meaningful work. His Sicilian family had always cooked from scratch and he thought he might try making oil colors from scratch, in the manner of the finest European manufacturers. Working out of his garage with a Hobart mixer and a 3-roll mill he started what is now Gamblin Artists Colors, (www.gamblincolors.com), an international brand of oil painting materials. Robert traveled the country the following thirty years to educate a generation of American painters about their materials. He made a major contribution to the practice of painting through the development of materials that has made oil painting safer than ever before. Today he is part of the marketing and new product development teams at GAC.

Robert founded Gamblin Conservation Colors in 2000 (www.conservationcolors.com). The company makes color for conservators and restorers world wide to use in the repair of damaged artwork. The colors are used by the conservation departments in most of the major museums. The company was the result of a 5-year research project led by René de la Rie, Head of the Science Dept., National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Mark Leonard, Head of Conservation, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles California and Jill Whitten, Whitten Proctor Conservation, Houston Texas.

Robert lives and shares a wonderful studio with his partner Catherine Kumlin in Portland Oregon.