Robert Jacobs
Modern Myths of the Maiden
My work seeks the mythic within the modern. The female form serves as vessel and apparition: surfers become contemporary Venuses, skeletons shadow maidens in dialogues of vanity and death, and atmospheric backdrops of sea and storm sculpt space like living entities.
I pursue a pluralistic Romanticism — merging chiaroscuro facture of the old masters with symbolist ambiguity and contemporary bodies.
Figures rise not as individuals but as archetypes: athletes, saints, lovers, revenants. The result is a visual language of thresholds — between vitality and mortality, allure and decay, gesture and dissolution — where beauty is never static but always in tension with time.
Untitled: CarYatid
Recent Works
My most recent inspiration comes from images of surfers carrying their surfboards overhead on the beach, which resemble the poses of Caryatids.
Untitled: Caryatid
Who am I?
I combine artmaking with a full-time job in IT.
My drawings, sketches, and paintings find inspiration in the grace and beauty of the human form.
The drawings and sketches employ charcoal, graphite, and pastel.
The paintings are based on my drawings and engage the techniques and materials of oil painting to reinvent the image.
“In addition to the strong dynamism of their body’s movement, I am drawn to the abstraction created by the placement of figures against the waves within the picture plane. This brings about a conflict, which I continue to work through by breaking up the space and permitting abstract shapes to become part of the piece.”
My Style
Early in my career, I studied the materials and techniques of the old masters and experimented on a regular basis. Over the years I seem to have found a style that works for me. In the last year my work has developed a strong continuity, both in my paintings and drawings. My style has not changed a lot during that time, only matured in the same technique.
Pushing Out
Toes on the Nose (Josie Prendergast)
Secrets
