Artist Spotlight: Aaron Robbins

Share a little bit about yourself and what you create.
My name is Aaron Robbins and I live in Brantford with my wife, two kids and our dog Shiloh. We moved from the coast of British Columbia to Brantford in 2007. We have a home in the Fairview district of Brantford’s north end. We were very fortunate to get a ¼ acre fenced lot in the city where my family can have a huge space to play and garden. Hopefully I will be able to build a studio on my property but until then, I have the use of a good sized room in my basement that has natural light.

I am a painter and have been professionally represented since 2005. I have always created pieces of art (sold my first drawings in kindergarden for 25 cents). It wasn’t until grade 11 that I really began to use paint as my main medium. My first real recognition as an artist came from obtaining the Markham Group of Artists Bursary Award for most promising student artist in York Region in my final year of high school. I enrolled at York University for the BFA specialized honours degree with a double major in painting and drawing. Completing my double major, I left University in 1997 to pursue adventure in the West Coast of BC. After founding the most successful provincial mountain bike racing trade teams and travelling all over BC, I started to settle down into my art and pursue it on a professional level. I co-founded the Burrard Inlet Artist Association where we brought the local community and art together through artist studios and housing openings of art and music in our 1,000 sq.ft. gallery. After 10 years out West, It was time to come back to Ontario to lay roots around family with our two kids.

What is your creative process like and what inspires it?
I paint abstract landscapes. Sometimes I use photos as reference for certain realistic imagery but the majority of my painting’s imagery is cerebral and from memory of life’s travels and experiences. I have always incorporated movement in my work and recently, physical depth on my 2-D surfaces. For the past year I have been using a layered glazing technique that I invented…multiple layers of acrylic gloss with painting between each layer. The technique builds the painting where you can see paint sitting on top of paint three dimensionally. Makes you want to poke your finger in…but please don’t!! LOL The process of layering up to at least 8 layers of clear gloss per painting, with drying time, is a process that takes a minimum of 8 weeks to complete. Because of the amount of time to finish a composition, I work on multiple paintings at the same time.

What has been your favourite creative moment?
My favorite and most frustrating moments in art come from my mistakes. Or, perhaps they were not mistakes but actual blessings! I may place the wrong colour, line or brushstroke on my canvas, impossible to correct. Instead of giving up on the work, I’ll work with it and push in different directions or cover the “mistake” with an added painting technique which ultimately changes the original composition. In the end, I have lost control of the painting and let my artistic talents flow, creating something that I never knew I could. It is the best feeling as a contemporary abstract painter to completely give up all control of a painting and just let your instincts take over. You just have to trust yourself as a painter and know that all the years of painting will pull your work through. If it’s just not your day with the paint and your creativity flow is somewhere else for the day…there is always gesso.

What else do you enjoy doing with your time?
If I’m not painting and it’s nice weather outside I’ll throw my leg over my full suspension cross country race bike and hammer some trails along the Grand. Forever enjoying the outdoors, my family and I do a lot of hiking in the many conservation areas around Brantford and many dog/river walks in the summer.

Does creativity run into your family? If so, who is creative and what do they do?
I do have some creativity in my family starting as far back as my great aunt Leila Vanzant Mason who was a Canadian opera singer and eventually went to Europe to sing. My grandmother dabbled in painting as well as my mother. My mother was a talented realistic painter when I was really young but when she became a single mother of two boys she never had the time. She is now pursuing writing and plans to explore painting again soon. A few of my cousins are involved in stained glass, quilting and one is a musician who runs a drumming studio in Toronto.

How can we learn more about your work?
My art is represented in British Columbia at the Bellevue Gallery and north of Toronto at the Wellington Gallery. I have had random shows in places like Las Vegas, New Zealand, Toronto’s Distillery District, Toronto and Vancouver. I can be followed on the web through my website www.aaronrobbins.artspan.com and on Facebook “Aaron Robbins Contemporary Canadian Painter”.

Where would you like your art to take you?
My goal is to have more global representation and introduce my “Canadian Landscape” painting to the world. I am looking at solid representation and shows in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. I am also looking at International art fairs in New York, galleries in Santa Fe, NM, and possible art dealer representation in Europe and parts of Asia. First, need to have enough inventory of paintings to pursue these venues.

How long have you lived in Brantford?
I have lived in Brantford for 5 ½ years.

What is your favourite restaurant in town?
Favorite restaurant for steak would be The Keg and not because I work there part time as a dining room server but they have consistent great quality steaks. I also really like the sushi from Blessings get take-out from Bombay Indian and enjoy the wings/ribs/beer at Sammy’s Rec Room.

What local spaces or landmarks do you find inspiring?
Inspiring places in Brantford would be made up of any turn of the century architecture. I really enjoy my Canadian heritage that has been traced back to 1796 where part of my family came to York as United Empire Loyalists. Not a space or landmark but truly inspiring to my work would be the landscape surrounding Brantford from the streams and rivers, open fields with bugs butterflies and wildflowers and the pockets of beautiful forests

What change would you like to see in Brantford?
A bit biased but of course I would like to see more funding for growing an even stronger arts community. The artists and creative passions are here in Brantford but there needs to be a nurturing of interest in the arts within the community. Perhaps, more venues showing art and community organizations teaching about all the arts from culinary, interior design, fine art etc…the community would be able to sustain commercially minded arts endeavours.