Welcome to California Readers Online: California Author/Artist Interviews -Reynolds, Robert

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MEET ROBERT REYNOLDS
by Bonnie O'Brian

As far back as I can remember, I was drawing all the time. Ironically, I seemed to be always beginning a book, however, at the age of seven or eight, I usually only made it to three or four pages; but the intent was there! I spent a good deal of time outdoors and at an early age, I was relating to the beauty of nature in a way that at the time, I couldn’t explain. I was a typical young boy and although I was drawing and coloring all the time, I still had time to participate in sports and continued with this combination all through school. I played quarterback on the high school football team and also, played forward on the basketball team, and later, was very active in the game of tennis.

Without a doubt, the books of N.C. Wyeth, such as ROBIN HOOD and ROBINSON CRUSOE and other similar kinds of books that had beautiful, illustrated reproductions. I loved the images and of course, I read the books that inspired the illustrations. This attraction of images also was encouraged by creative films, which created such dramatic and beautiful images. Early in life, I became aware of the power of dramatic light and I think the early films and the many illustrators and the artist’s reproductions that I viewed as young boy provided the spark to motivate my imagination. Living in a small town, I never had the opportunity to see great works of original art until later in life. My book, THE ART OF ROBERT REYNOLDS, talks about this in the section, “About the Artist”.

When you were a child, did you have moments when you decided that you were going to be an artist when you grew up?

Absolutely; from an early age, I knew I wanted to be an artist. Looking back, I can see that I was a bit naïve, but interestingly, I never had to struggle with the question of “And what do you want to be when you grow up?” I always had the answer.

I was drawing and painting and entering art shows, before I attended the Art Center College of Design (at the time, Art Center was located on West Third Street in Los Angeles). However, Art Center was the next important level that I required and shortly after entering the school, it made me realize that there was a great deal of art education that I needed to acquire and it seemed that I started all over again from the beginning. I was exposed and competing with very talented young people from all over the United States. It was a big challenge but I loved every minute and attending this prestigious art college was the best decision that I have ever made. Also, the fact that I now had world class art to view and study in the various art museums in the Los Angeles area was also a thrilling and important event in my life. Later in my life, I spent a good deal of time in the many art museums in England and all through Europe; however, the introductory stage began in Los Angeles. It changed my life.

It was a number of years after college (I later received a Master’s Degree in Education at Cal Poly University), before I worked on my first book. I think this was a good thing, because in my field, one has to experience life and have many activities that hopefully add-up to some kind of wisdom and talent that can be shared. Teaching art was an education in itself. While I was a professor of art at Cal Poly University, on four occasions, I took art students to England for three month stays. While we were there, we all drew and painted the many new images that had come into our lives and much of the time was spent in the world class art museums. Upon arriving home after the first trip, we were encouraged by the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, to put our work together in a book. I took on the role of editor of the book and I had five art students who worked with me in making this book become a reality and its title is THE LONDON EXPERIENCE: A COLLECTION OF ILLUSTRATED MEMORIES. In addition to their artwork, each student was required to put into words their feelings and experiences about England. A few years later, I wrote the text and provided my paintings for a book that was commissioned by North Light Books, entitled, PAINTING NATURE’S PEACEFUL PLACES. I worked with writer Patrick Seslar and he edited my words. I was never happy with the title of the book, but my vote didn’t count; the marketing people won.

Being an artist, I find a myriad of everyday visual life experiences, past and present, motivates my desire to express myself in paint. My life is my art; my art is my life. However, it took me years to realize that it is extremely important for me to paint what I personally know and have experienced. The experiences have to come through me and be visually interpreted and expressed on the canvas or the rag paper. Meaningful subjects in my work happen only if they are meaningful for me. This might sound like a very egotistical viewpoint, but the fact of the matter is expressing one’s self in a visual media and attempting to share what one feels and visualizes, can be perceived as somewhat of an ego trip. Of course, not every viewer is going to share my vision and may even reject it. No doubt about it. But this is the nature and risk of artistic expression and I assume it is very similar to being a professional novelist.

This is an easy question to answer. My most recent book, THE ART OF ROBERT REYNOLDS, is a journal of a lifetime of celebrating California’s pristine nature expressed and interpreted through my paintings and I enjoyed creating the book immensely. The book was a labor of love, even though at times, it seemed overwhelming. However, I enjoyed being on top of all the artistic decisions that were made pertaining to my own work. The financial decisions of the book were made by Cal Poly University ( San Luis Obispo) and they were most generous in allowing me to take care of the artistic elements and the layout of the book. It was a rare experience and one that I doubt will occur for me again in the near future.

So far, I have had my share of some very nice letters and personal expressions regarding my book. The one letter that stands out has to be the following letter that presently is displayed near my easel. It was sent to my colleague, friend and writer James Hayes who shared it with me:

“I can’t tell you how gorgeous a book this is! In all my life as an art lover, art history student and ardent collector of books, I’ve got to tell you that this book is unrivaled in elegance of production AND in content. Truly, I’ve seen no books of this extraordinary quality that combines a contemporary artist and a contemporary writer. (I just inventoried my art book collection….NOPE!) Amazingly, the book fell open to the painting titled, “Alpenglow: Thunder Mountain”. Your comment was:

I never heard of ‘Alpenglow’ until I met Carl and went hiking in the Sierras with him to see it. He loved that light effect! Much later, after his cancer diagnosis, when he was sick and struggling, he consulted a hypo-therapist. The image he “invoked” to initiate relaxation was a Sierra peak at Alpenglow. No wonder I hugged the BOOK at that particular page.

Congrats to you both! You’ve created a book that is painfully beautiful. That’s how it should be when you’ve achieved the best!

Summary: To have one so moved by my book, took on new meaning for me. People from all kinds of life experiences bring their wealth of knowledge to the book and see, feel and hear things that sometimes were not even evident to me while creating these images. An older friend once told me, “It’s important to learn something each day”. He is so right! Books certainly provide this opportunity for us each day. Robert Reynolds

MEET ROBERT REYNOLDS by Bonnie O'Brian

MEET ROBERT REYNOLDS
by Bonnie O'Brian