Rob Floyd
I am a figurative artist, based in Cheshire working primarily in oils, both on canvas and board, as well as producing graphic pieces in pen, ink and charcoal on paper.
I was born in Hertfordshire and educated at the University of Hertfordshire and the University of Sunderland where I obtained a BA (Hons) in Fine Art in 1997.
My output ranges from portraiture to large scale religious work, to landscapes (particularly skyscapes) and still lives. What links all my work is a sincere attempt to engage with the Divine through the creative process: Rather than feeling the existential angst of being alone in a meaningless universe I have always believed our lives and our world to be inherently full of meaning and that a central task of all human beings is to try to engage with this as fully as possible. My work represents a sustained attempt to do this and for me the act of painting and this attempt are inextricably linked but I don’t pretend to have all the answers – I’m on the journey too! I consider myself a painter in the ‘painterly’ tradition and use underpainting and glazing techniques to produce my final, often sketchy image which a viewer must ‘complete’, mixing the different layers in their own eyes as they look at the image and also bring their own references and sensibilities to the process.
I have exhibited work in galleries and spiritual spaces throughout my career as well as accepting commissions from churches and cathedrals and also for portraits. Over a four-year period beginning in 2012 and culminating in 2016 I painted a Stations of the Cross cycle for Manchester cathedral (consisting of eighteen life sized canvases and one drawing) and the a Stations of the Resurrection cycle for Liverpool Anglican cathedral (consisting of seventeen life sized canvases) which are now part of the respective cathedral’s permanent art collections.
In 2015 my ‘Self Portrait Facing ‘Artist’s Block’’ won the Gordon Hulson Memorial Prize at the Royal Society of British Artists Open Exhibition.
Sitters for portraits have included The Rt Rev. Mark Davies, Bishop of Middleton, The Rt Rev. Libby Lane, Bishop of Stockport, writer and polymath Prof. Ravi Ravindra and writer and philosopher Colin Wilson.
Please contact Rob via email: carolineandrob13@gmail.com
Follow Rob on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/robfloyd13/
