Robert Strickland – Friday Night Guest – Jan. 22, 2021
(Submitted by Sylvia Le Roy)
Robert Strickland is a local artist who has created a career as a realist painter in Toronto. He walked us through the various stages of his preparation to produce the beautiful paintings he calls the ‘Figure in urban Landscape’. Robert did not come out of the womb drawing or did not belong to an artistic, creative family.
At 18 years of age Robert’s formal fine art education began at Sheridan College where he immersed himself in painting, colour theory, draftsmanship and design. All of which became the foundation of his art. He sought to improve his drawing skills by using the Barque-Gerome Drawing Course. A complete reprint of a famous late nineteenth century drawing course which was very instrumental in honing his drawing skills. It contains a set of almost two hundred masterful lithographs of various subjects for copying by drawing students before they attempt drawing from life or nature. But that was only the beginning.
Andrew Loomis, George Bridgman and John H Vanderpoel were the artists who taught Robert the structural approach to drawing the head and the figure. He recommends using their books in a dedicated drawing practice to improve drawing and rendering. They also taught him the importance of Value, Shape, Form and Edges.
After receiving an art grant he was able to participate in workshops with US artist Robert Liberace robertliberace.com and Jeremy Lipking www.lipking.com who are masters at the Art Renewal Centre www.artrenewal.org whose motto is ‘Leading the Revival of Realism’.
Robert’s approach to painting has evolved from drawing and painting the portrait/figure to florals and then to painting the figure in the landscape. His work is available ROBERTS GALLERY on Yonge Street in Toronto.
In his studio Robert is painting, teaching and creating material for his YouTube channel ROBERT STRICKLAND. If you are interested in instruction, workshops and mentoring from Robert contact him.
View more of his work at his website ROBERT STRICKLAND www.robertstricklandart.com
Instagram: robertstrickland
E-mail him at for inquiries: robertstrickland@gmail.com or www.robertstricklandart.com