| Biography
Continued....
Bob
spent
his entire childhood in Kansas City, Missouri. He was an only
child. His mother was a piano teacher and began teaching Bob to
play at the age of five: When he was six years old he performed
his first one man concert. Throughout his childhood, he continued
his musical education. He also showed a strong interest in
drawing. His musical endeavors were enthusiastically encouraged,
his drawing interests, not.
After high school, Bob decided to enter
college, not as a music major, but as a pre-med student. He
attended the University of Missouri at Columbia and in his junior
year he was required to take three credit hours of fine arts for
his pre med degree. He signed up for a three hour “Introduction
to Art” class and when he walked into the art building, saw the
paintings, and smelled the turpentine, he knew he was home. He
loved the art and after one semester, made the hardest phone call
to his parents that he had ever had to make; “Mom, Dad, I’ve
decided not to be a doctor, I’m going to be an artist!
Silence----------”.
Bob went on to receive his Bachelors and his Masters Degree in Art
from University of Missouri at Columbia. After graduating he
taught painting and drawing at the University and also at Missouri
Western College in St. Joseph, Missouri.
At the age of thirty, Bob quit teaching and
began painting full time. His primary focus, for many years was
still-life; still-lives rendered in a very detailed, fool-the-eye
realistic style. In the late 1980's he began to paint children as
the center of interest in his work and in that particular genre,
he found success. Bob is now internationally known for his
realistic portrayals of children in nostalgic settings; settings
that reflect his own “kinder and gentler” childhood.
He and his wife Alice, have four grown children
and two grandchildren. Alice is their business manager and a very
fine painter in her own right. They now live in Lee’s Summit,
Missouri. Bob’s work is represented in many fine collections and
his work can be seen in thousands of galleries throughout the
world.
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