Carole Robb
Link to Studio International Interview January 2016
Carole Robb was born in Scotland and studied painting at the Glasgow School of Art and the University of Reading England (MFA 1979). She studied with Terry Frost. Robb has worked in Rome, Venice, New York and London.
Numerous solo shows include AIR - London, South London Art Gallery, C'a d'Oro Rome - Robert Steele Gallery, New York, NY - Forum Gallery, New York, NY and Denise Bibro Fine Art, New York, NY. Major awards include the British Prix de Rome, a Fulbright award and a British Arts Council Major Award. Her work is represented in private and public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the British School at Rome, Italy, the Royal Commission, London, the US-UK Fulbright Commission London and the Imperial War Museum, London. Carole Robb is a member of the National Academy, New York.
The Venice Paintings.
When I find something that astonishes me I start work. I'd painted in Venice before but nothing ends it's more like you left the room. So I came back to Venice & I made a 20ft. long watercolor, a scroll of the Grand Canal. While I was moving along it's banks, painting a stretch each day, I noticed the close bond between Venetian women & their small dogs. I also saw gondolas gliding through the front doors of Palazzo's & Traghetti's finding it hard going to row across the Canal. I was seeing rising waters & climate change. I was seeing that
imperfection can be beauty. And this series which began with
Women & dogs took it's own direction & the Grand Canal became a swimming pool with 'The Diver' from Paestum & deckchairs from my childhood seaside holidays, making guest appearances. The painting "Moonlight Cocktails" is the Cafe Florian with a waiter up to his ankles in water. Venetians say 'only the Angels can save us now' so I added an Angel by Caravaggio. My paintings are not just about reality, they're somewhere between the actuality of a scene & invention.
"Robb's intense engagement with Venice is clear... Carole Robb is the legitimate heir to Ruskin in what she intends to do." Peter de Francia, London, artist and author of Leger, the Great Parade [Cassell, 1969] and The Life and Work of Fernand Leger [Yale University Press, 1983]