 Bouncin', 1981 acrylic on canvas, 28" × 34" |
 Catapault, 1998 acrylic on canvas, 48" × 67" |
 Lady Blues, 1989 acrylic on canvas, 35.5" × 79.5" |
 Lady's Green, 1990 acrylic on canvas, 31" × 48" |
 Spain Remembered, 1990 acrylic on canvas, 24" × 30" |
 Tonal Harmony,2004 acrylic on canvas, 34" × 48" |
 Trampin', 1999 acrylic on canvas, 48" × 72" |
 Transvaal, 1987 acrylic on canvas, 38" × 80" |
 Ya Ya, 2006 acrylic on canvas, 34" × 48" |
Charles Robb – Artist Biography
Charles Robb was born in Toronto in 1938. After graduating from the Ontario College of Art (OCA) in 1959, Robb travelled through Europe, exploring and sketching. To make a living upon his return he worked in advertising, continued to paint in his home studio and, being an avid drummer, performed with various groups around Toronto.
Robb began painting as a teenager and at the age of 25, had his first one-man exhibition at the Andre Emmerich Gallery in New York. As a youth he was drawn to landscape painting which, during his years at OCA, became a devotion to abstract expressionism. Over the years this devotion evolved through various modes.
Art has always been part of Robb’s life. His father was international painter, Jack Bush. As a young man Robb spent valued occasions, both in Toronto and New York, with the likes of Kenneth Nolan, Tony Caro and art critic/historian Clement Greenberg. Later he enjoyed many years with his contemporaries while under contract to his art dealer and friend, the late Jack Pollock.
In 1981 the CBC produced a documentary on Charles Robb for the ‘Seeing It Our Way’ Series. Part of that documentary was filming Robb’s process of creating a painting from beginning to end. Robb always listens to music while painting and put on a Dave Brubeck tape when filming started. The director asked him to turn the music off as it would make the final sound editing difficult. For the first time Robb painted in silence. The final edited show had the Brubeck piece as its theme. It was from this experience that Robb realized how his love of music and art had merged. He paints the music.
Robb and his wife, Mary Anne, now enjoy life in the town of Goderich on the shore of Lake Huron.
“Art and music will always be an implicit part of me along with the constants in my life, my wife, my three sons and their families.”