If you attended The Art Walk on Whyte Ave this summer, you may have come across the vibrant water colours of Edmonton based artist, Robert Thorne. He probably greeted you with a warm smile and easy conversation, before inviting you to explore his delightful display of brightly coloured, otherworldly canvases, illuminating the musings and convictions of an honest, bold and socially conscious artist.
A small studio in central Edmonton is where Robert escapes for some one-on-one time with his imagination, to create, undistracted. His most recent paintings cover the walls, and empty canvases wait to collect the next display of colour, yet to be envisioned.
Robert’s muse, he admits, is hard to pin down and he doubts having the
attention span to
commit to one specific
muse. Always
contemplating what to
create from the myriad
of ideas ever
circulating in his mind,
once he settles on
what resonates with
him, he stays that
course until it reveals
all he might learn from
it. He draws creative
energy from these phases and cycles, and perhaps the search for the next muse is somewhat of a muse in itself for such a dynamic artist
“When I first started painting,” he recalls, “the reason I started doing all the crazy colours was
that I saw this artist called Agnes Cecile, and she does lots of water colour portraits that are all
super abstracted.” Similarly, he has been influenced by the works of Russian artist, Lora
Zombie. The influences are visible, but Robert Thorne has a style all his own, which continues to grow and evolve, with some of his recent works including more human faces, crisp lines and contrast to his characteristic aesthetic of vibrant colours, obscurely flowing together.
It came as a surprise to Robert that he became an artist at all, and perhaps not growing up in an
artistic environment had merely kept visual arts off his radar early on. “When I was younger, I
never thought that I’d be an artist,” he shares, “I had some friends who were really good at
it…how was I supposed to pull out what they were doing?” He took high school art classes
nonetheless, believing all the while he would be a writer, and embarked on pursing an education in communications. Continuing to paint all the while, he began to realize his true passion was in the visual, and changed his educational focus to graphic arts and design.
Now, Robert divides his time between his emerging illustration and design company, and his works on canvas, while continuing to be open to expanding his creative repertoire. He has applied his skills to a variety of commissioned work, including comic illustration, advertising and awareness campaigns and motion graphics.
“Doing one thing can
make you better at
another thing,” he
explains, “and you
don’t even realize it.”
Creating comics, for
example, honed his
skill for drawing faces,
through repetition, as
is reflected in his
recent water colour
works. Also, his
graphic design
training really cemented for him the value of always having a message and putting that message across clearly, something he applies to his art by adding elements ofrealism to an abstract aesthetic.
Moving forward, Robert hopes to use his art and design skills to help make a difference. “I don’t just want to make nice paintings that don’t really do anything,” he explains, “Although
it’s fun making pretty things, I would like to do things that are helpful to the community, maybe
art shows for charity organization, and help Edmonton as a community and the queer community.” Perhaps this former communications student never truly left this field of study after all, he just found the medium that allowed him to communicate his message in the most beautiful way possible.
-Shauna Specht
Artist of the Month
Robert Thorne