Rob explored drawing and painting on his own until his late teens.  He then studied with Telford Fenton at Toronto’s Three Schools and with John Angel (a protégé of Italian master Pietro Annigoni), with whom he apprenticed for a year.  Rob’s focus is portraiture and figure work, which he executes in soft pastel and oil.

Rob is influenced by the work of Velázquez, Degas, and modern masters Daniel Greene and Robert Liberace.  

Pastel is Rob's favourite medium, although he also paints in oil and sculpts in clay.  While he chooses a wide variety of subjects, his preferred is people.  The human face is an endless source of inspiration to Rob, and the landscape of the body provides him limitless raw material for artistic expression.  The fascinating complexity of individuals available for portraits, and the beauty of male and female form available for figure work enable him to explore and express his artistic ideas.