Robert Taylor was an engineer like his father and was an apprentice at General Motors Holden, where he became a sort of “artist in residence” during the happenings within the plant.
He managed local rock groups and organised concerts and cabarets in the 60s, finding himself involved with the publicity posters, stage and set designs.
He left General Motors Holden in 1970 to concentrate on his rock cabarets, running them four nights a week and attracting the best of Australian rock artists at the time.
the next few years, he completed many commissions for both private and public clients, like the 1977 “Sea Wave Jewel”, a glass resin bass relief that the then-premier Don Dunstall unveiled at the opening of the surf house.
Robert concentrated more on his oils and began painting his wilderness series. He also has successful one-man shows in Melbourne and at the 1978 Adelaide Festival of Arts.
These successful exhibitions allowed Robert to extend his range and made many field trips to the outback areas.
In 1980 Robert and his wife Lewis (who is also a ceramic artist) travelled to Europe, where he exhibited with Liberties of London and also entered the Royal Academy’s annual exhibition in 1980.
On his return to Adelaide, he participated in “Painting in South Australia today” at the Art Gallery of South Australia.
Robert is a keen photographer and began making video clips on field trips in 1985.
Robert paints primarily from memory and limits on-location work to pencil drawings and sketchy watercolours. These days he uses a camera to record the facts but prefers painting from memory, reflected in Roberts’s love of the bush is in his painting’s attention to detail and cool colours of the coast and rich shades of the inland.
(Biography source: Direct from the family)
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