ED ROBINSONBy Ed Robinson

WE ARE DELIGHTED TO WELCOME ED ROBINSON TO THE COTSWOLD CONTEMPORARY PORTFOLIO.

Ed creates stunning intricate cityscapes using striking colour, texture, and newsprint to atmospheric effect. Inspired by the early work of Pete Blake, and the artwork of The Beatles Sgt. Pepper album cover, Ed embarked upon a successful career into graphics and illustration. His graphical painting style emerged in the 1970s, and was used publicity for ICI and WH Smiths, which ensured its stylistic longevity in his artistic career.

Often drawing in the viewer with directional light, Ed captures a moment in time, a glimpse of a bustling market, or a busy street scene, or an iconic landmark, as the characters bustle though the composition. Ed interplays collage with mixed media in his work, employing newsprint and printed type to add a voice to his colourful interpretations of urban living.

A painting begins its life with an on-the-spot sketches and Ed simplifies the chosen scene to create a vision of line and shape on paper.  “Elements of an abstract nature emerge as a consequence of simplifying the subject with a variety of effects and a limited palette”.

Ed employs a variety of materials to create innovative features in his work and these include bubble wrap, corrugated card, foam, clingfilm, sack and rollers. He uses a gesso paint, mixed to his own recipe, to sometimes very visual rough brushstrokes. Other times, he employs the use of sandpaper to smooth the surface ready for the incorporation of newsprint and font type.

“The working process involves losing the image and then finding it through the mixed media techniques that I employ. This continues through the development of the painting.”