Featured Artist Robert Little

Artist Robert Little masterfully brings nostalgic scenes to life in this collection of light-filled landscapes. Visit his website to see more of his art.

 

 

Using paint and brush has always felt natural to me.

 

 

When I was a young boy, my father, a commercial artist in New York City, and I would take sketch pad, pencil, and a small box of watercolor paints and go plein air painting. I grew up in Mercer County, New Jersey and at that time there were plenty of small family farms, woods and fields.

 

 

I am still drawn to pastoral scenes—especially barns. I think they evoke sweet memories of a time and place from my childhood.

 

 

We live and move in the world God created. I am very drawn to places we encounter, explore or inhabit—places that evoke feelings or memories. An old abandoned house still speaks of the lives it once sheltered within its walls. An old mill retains the memories of all those people who worked and labored there.

 

 

Essential to any authentic sense of place or environment is light and shadow. Light conveys mood and atmosphere. It reveals form and character of detail and texture. The interaction of light and shadow convey much visual and emotional meaning. Light is affected by other conditions, such as time of day, the season and the weather conditions.

 

 

Light also helps convey the transitory and fleeting nature of life—the glint of sunlight on a wall will be gone in another minute!

 

 

I work in pastel, watercolor, acrylic and most recently, oil paints.

 

 

Usually, I let the subject suggest the medium to employ. The foundation and skeleton of a painting is good design and drawing.

 

 

 

I build up layers to get a richness of character and three-dimensional depth to a painting. Sometimes it’s good to remove paint by wiping away or scraping; I had a drawing teacher who always reminded us that using an eraser was as important as using a pencil! The trick is to not overwork a painting.

 

 

As an artist, I respond to places and environments that for reasons touch me. I seek to create an authentic world in each painting—whether it be a mountain valley, a cityscape or the under-canopy of plants in the garden. I try to capture the truth of a scene—the mood and atmosphere. Hopefully, viewers will share the feelings I had when I stopped to first glance and then linger to appreciate aspects of our world.

 

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