Robert Crosby has established himself as an accomplished artist, noted for his hyper-realist paintings and for capturing the essence of the East Coast.
Crosby, who has been in Brantford since 1982, has a deep connection with Nova Scotia, being born in Sydney.
“My family moved down to Ontario when I was fairly young, but I spent pretty much all of my summers in Nova Scotia. My aunt and my grandfather had a place there, which I have now so I have continued to spend most of my summers there. But I’ve always loved the ocean…being by the water, being by the old boats and old buildings and cars. That’s really had a huge influence on me,” he said.
Crosby started painting at an early age, initially working in oils but eventually gravitating to acrylics in his teens.
“I used to paint in oils when I first started…it’s extremely smelly [and] you get involved with things like linseed oil and varnishing…[and] the timeframe for it to dry is incredibly long,” he explained. “I started doing acrylic painting when I was about 16 years old and got really into the art classes then. The art teacher I had at the time was extremely helpful [and] he was very good at getting me interested.”
He then explained why he has continued to work with acrylics, which he feels is a more versatile medium.
“The thing I like about acrylic is it [gives me a chance to] paint in layers…I’ll do the overall painting, and then I start getting into more details…acrylic [also] dries almost instantly…there’s no smell to it…and is extremely easy to use,” explained Crosby. “Acrylics now are more heavy-bodied than they used to be [and] with the exception of a few colors like red and yellow, you can pretty much just do one layer and still get a pretty good depth to the colors. But mainly, more than anything else, it’s just the convenience of the cleanup and you can do it pretty much anywhere. Also, if you make a mistake, you can correct it very quickly.”
However, Crosby, who counts Robert Bateman and Neil Depew as some of his artistic influences, is dedicated to creating works that are highly detailed and can take between 30 to 40 hours to finish.
“I consider my art to be very realistic and [many] people have commented that [my work] looks like photographs [so] I tend to have a sign by my paintings [noting] that their original artwork [and] they’re all acrylic paintings,” he noted. “Actually, I’m very much involved in and I do quite a bit of photography…all of my paintings are done from my own photographs, so I don’t have copyright [issues]. But I just enjoy doing realism. I’ve tried doing abstract and my brain just doesn’t work that way…I’m a little bit on the technical side and I’ve always [liked] details.”
Nevertheless, Crosby has always had a fascination with those things that others tend to miss, which he highlights in his work especially when he visits Nova Scotia.
“Everybody’s kind of in a hurry to get everywhere…driving around and getting to work, going to lunch, or doing whatever they’re doing. I’m one of those people that likes to walk in the park [or] walk along the shoreline…seeing the old dories and the old boats that are kind of left there…it’s fascinating that people, especially down in places like Nova Scotia and tourist areas like Peggy’s Cove, will see all the old boats and things like that [and be] so excited], yet, when they’re driving down a highway or along the fishing shoreline, they don’t even notice them,” Crosby explained.
Through the years, Crosby’s work has been featured in various exhibitions, festivals, and other art-related events across provinces.
“I tend to do shows mainly in Nova Scotia just because of the type of artwork I do [and] the response has always been very good….one or two of the biggest galleries I have done shows around here [include] the Niagara Pumphouse [Arts Centre] in Niagara-on-the-Lake [and] I’ve done several different solo shows there…I have [also] done shows at the Woodhouse gallery in Port Dover…one at the Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant…[and] I will doing [a show] at the end of November at the McMichael Canadian Art Gallery in Toronto,” explained Crosby.
As a noted artist, Crosby has also been asked by many people to do commissioned works, something he tends to be very selective about.
“I do get requests for commissions, but I only do the artwork that I like. I’ve done several commissions from people to do their cars…I don’t know how many Chevys and Buicks I have done! I have also had quite a few commissions on people’s houses and cottages [but] I don’t do portraiture or anything like that anymore. I did that at one time, but I find people don’t see themselves the way I see them,” he said.
Crosby, who worked for the Fairview Photo Lab in Brantford for many years before retiring, will be continuing to work through the winter season in time for the New Year.
“I’ll [be] doing a lot of my painting this winter which I will be using to disperse [across] different galleries during the summer time. I spend a lot of time in the summer traveling through Nova Scotia and New Brunswick [where] I also do a lot of my photography. That way, I have a fair number of pictures that I can use [to base my artwork on],” Crosby said. “I do have several photos that I’m looking forward to doing paintings of…and I’m trying to do a few more on a larger scale. I’m working on one right now that’s 30 by 40 inches, which for me, is a little bit on the larger scale [and] it’s a painting of some old fishing buoys. That’s probably as close to abstract as I’m ever going to get.”
