Success for 2013!

Rob has been invited to join a Small Works Exhibition at the Tohono Chul Gallery from October 25 – December 15, 2013. Over 130 artists will be taking part in this exciting show!

This is an experimental, new exhibition for Tohono Chul. Over the course of this exhibition, the works on display will be changing regularly, ostensibly making each visit to this show unique during the very busy fall season and during three weekends of the popular Holiday Nights events that are held. The gallery will be showing only a portion of the total artworks at a time, however all works will be displayed within the exhibit period. Each artist is limited to two works and all works to be included in this exhibition must be no larger than 12 inches in any direction. At this time, Rob is planning to show one his birds, “Winter Wait“, a Wilson’s Warbler, and a carved Collared Lizard titled, “Flash of Blue.”

Rob has also been contacted by the well known Tucson Happenings Magazine that is published each month listing the monthly Calendar of Events for the Tucson Metro Area who want to do an “Artist Profile” of Rob and his work and background. Rob will be profiled in the December 2013 magazine complete with biography and photos of selected carvings. The full article will be posted on the website when it comes out!

Rob and his wife Elvira were excited about their son Samuel’s wedding in June, 2013. Samuel had asked his Father for a special woodcarving to celebrate his marriage to Michelle. Rob completed a unique carving of two Saguaro cactus with their arms joined which was presented at their wedding. It is a simple presentation…but carries much meaning…and is certainly unique in its own right!

This past February 2013, Rob showed some of his work in the prestigious Desert Woodcarving Show at Mesa, Arizona. Ribbons were awarded to several of his caricature carvings, “Forget About Rise n’ Shine“, “Jest Kidden“, “Rise n’ Shine Santa” and for his life sized Red-tailed Hawk titled “Regal Red-tail.”

The year 2012 finished with a week-long study session with Glenn McMurdo, one of the country’s foremost wildfowl carvers where we finished carving and painting a Least Bittern, the smallest member of the long-legged Heron family. Photos of this project are also up on the website.

In March 2013 I was fortunate to be able to study bird carving with one of the world’s foremost Raptor carvers – Floyd Scholz. This is the third opportunity I have had over the last 10 years and each time I learn from Floyd it advances my art to another level. At the completion of this year’s 10 day session held in Tempe, AZ. we completed a life-size Merlin with extended wings. The Merlin is the second smallest of the falcons and offered some extreme challenges in carving and painting it. I brought it home and decided to carve a second bird to go with it and create a male and female pair in a single composition. The female is being painted as this goes to press (pictures will be showcased in another section of this website shortly).

I continue to be active in completing commissions for those who contact me through this website. Caricatures continue to capture the interest of the greatest numbers of requests. However, special collectors especially seek the realistic birds. Often, clients simply don’t realize how long it takes to create a carving…most especially if it is a realistic bird. Some of the birds found in this website took 160 to 200 hours, or more, of work to create and finish (figure out the per hour pay on that!). Some of the caricatures can get complicated and intricate and can take 20 to 60 hours to complete depending on how complicated they are. It certainly keeps me busy!