Born and raised in coastal Alabama, Brad Robertson paints with a distinctive style that invites the mind to wander across layers of color and texture as the eye might wander along the horizon, looking out across the water and into the depths of a Gulf Coast sunset. Robertson aims to evoke the eternal, looking for innovative ways to combine color and texture to create multi-layered shorelines, endless horizons, and seeming portals of bold color. A direct expression of the landscape he calls home, he views every piece as a part of him.
At Auburn University, Robertson spent time studying architecture and industrial design. During his time in college, an art professor created the foundation for what would eventually become Robertson's career as a professional painter, encouraging his unique ability to work with color and texture to create depth, complexity, and expressiveness.
Robertson earned his BFA in graphic arts in 1999, leaving painting behind for a time and moving to Atlanta to work as a full-time graphic artist at a production company. After a few years, he decided the structure and monotony of big-city life was not for him and went back to his roots of the more relaxed coastal way of life.
Since then, Robertson has become an award-winning artist with collectors throughout the United States. He is active in his local art community and says he cannot imagine doing anything else for a living. He considers good music an integral part of the artistic process and tries his hand at fishing in his spare time, though he admits he should probably stick to painting.
“My work starts with unanswered questions. I want my paintings to give the impression of looking out into the distance but looking further than what’s in front of you. I have spent more than a decade working to find innovative ways to combine color and texture to capture a sense of endlessness and the eternal. My aim is always to express a feeling more than a physical object."
Brad Robertson
An Interview with Brad Robertson
How do you work?
Robertson aims to evoke the eternal, looking for innovative ways to combine color and texture to create multi-layered shorelines, endless horizons, and seeming portals of bold color.
What themes do you pursue?
A direct expression of the landscape he calls home, he views every piece as a part of him.
Professionally, what’s your goal?
My art is the one thing that allows me to express myself. But there’s still an element of mystery to it. It begins as an expression of my own life and my own experience but it’s not until people look at my paintings and are able to define them in their own terms that I feel like my work has accomplished its purpose.
