Robin Hollingdrake

Robin was born in Port Credit, Ontario in 1953. Suburban Toronto was hardly a hotbed of arts activity in the 1960’s but Robin’s upbringing and exposure to the arts was total immersion. She had constant encouragement from her mother Patience Morrisey who kept a very active painting, printmaking, and ceramics studio. Her grandmother Mabel Harris was a gifted painter and draughtsperson. Robin’s sister Catherine Morrisey is a noted landscape painter in London, Ontario.

Robin attended the Ontario College of Art (1971-73) and Sheridan College School of Crafts and Design (1975-78). She has since raised a family, taught art, and been able to exhibit her work on a regular basis.

Robin works intuitively using acrylic paint, watercolour, printmaking, collage and pen & ink. She’s a disciplined artist who has painted every day for 40+ years. Working in series, she explores abstract ideas as well as realistic representations of flora. The over-riding commonality in all her work is the use of bold, vibrant colour combinations that simply dazzle the mind.

“I am inspired to create paintings that express my individual and acquired painting ideas. I want to see the paint texture foremost, while simultaneously feeling the colour areas expand out and then recede into space. I introduce textures to slow down my perception so the surface of the canvas appears to undulate.

Talent is given, and there’s not a moment to waste, to believe it, to accept it, and to make something of this life. Art doesn’t care where you begin, it is a series of new beginnings, that can have surprise endings.”  -R. Hollingdrake