Contact
Rob, on left of picture
Rob (left) at Norwich Print Fair
Email: barnesart@btinternet.com Phone 01508 521029 I am based in Norfolk about 15 miles from Norwich UK.
Blank greetings cards may be bought directly from Green Pebble.
Green Pebble Interview: What compelled you to choose art? I just loved my first box of paints from the start. Cheapo watercolours, yes, but the more I painted, the more I liked the idea of being an artist. A certain degree of innocence and ignorance helps make a child think they can do art. Was it always plain sailing? The more I learned, the harder it got and at art school paintings were over-worked. The appeal of printmaking was that there is always an end to the sequence and layers of ink. No more going back to change things. I love the physical nature of cutting shapes and lines in lino. The craft involved is a challenge and graduating coloured inks is a fascination I would not be without. My favourite birds are oystercatchers and pheasants. I like distant views in the landscape and moving wildlife such as birds in flight and hares chasing. When it’s not wildlife, I love old wooden boats on the shingle at Aldeburgh, Suffolk. I have worked on old printing presses all my career, but nothing compares with my Harry Rochat albion press based on a press made in 1854. Cast in 2013, it is perfectly over-engineered and I love it! Is there something you wish you could do better? Every linocut is an attempt to challenge myself, but If I’m honest I would love to play the violin better than I do. I expect other people who hear my playing think that too. How easy is it to source ideas? The more I work, the more I see. The more I see, the more I work. Printmaking is my way of observing nature. Do you remember your first sale? Tradition has it that your auntie buys the first picture. What is your typical day like? Now I have finished my day job, my day is not remotely typical. Sometimes I am in my studio by 7.30 and sometimes not. When I’m thinking about my next linocut I may do very little, except find a feeble excuse to find a tearoom or meet up with a friend. Do you take commissions? I have done them, and they work if the brief is not too narrow. An artist needs a bit of wriggle room in the design. I admire portrait artists who can keep to their commission. Landscape is more flexible a subject. The last one I did was very successful, though the risk is that the client might not like the final interpretation. Quite a pressure.