Robert Looker

Robert was born in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand.

From an early age, Robert had a passion to draw, to paint, and to become a full-time artist.

However, upon leaving high school, Robert was encouraged to “get a proper job”, and so began a long career in advertising, which eventually saw him move to Sydney where he lived until he retired and returned to Auckland and Mangawhai.

Robert is now a full-time painter and part-time sculptor. Robert’s preferred medium is oil paint, and his preferred subjects are the landscape, the human figure and portraiture. He combines plein air observation and memory to capture both quietly reflective and strongly visceral work, which may be figurative or abstract.

Robert employs diverse techniques, often painting ‘alla prima’, where a work is completed in one session, using wet-on-wet layers of paint mixed directly on the canvas; to automatism – the avoidance of conscious intention; to ‘grattage’, a process of scratching away the paint.

Robert is predominantly self-taught, but while living in Sydney, he attended National Art School master classes by Roger Crawford, and NAS workshops by Lucy Culliton, David Fairbain, Barbie Kjar and Euan McLeod.

Robert has had solo and group exhibitions in Sydney, Auckland and at Mangawhai Artists, and has been a finalist in some of Australia’s and New Zealand’s leading art prizes. Robert’s work is held in private collections throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, UK, and Seychelles.