A sketch of the artist as an older man
By Alice Eachus
June 2007 article from the Big Canoe, Georgia community periodical, Smoke Signals
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Okay, it's a bit of a reach from the James
Joyce classic, but the tale of Big Canoe artist Bob Glover
is best told with a sketch Or several
sketchbooks, as the case may be.
Sketching is where the artist's mind can run free and play
as a springboard for interpretations to come. For years Bob
carried
a sketchbook with him, waiting and ready for any interesting
scene that happened to come his way. But it wasn't until a serendipitous
circumstance in 2004 when a lady at an antique show studied
Bob sketching away and commissioned him to do a series of drawings
of "Extraordinary Chickens" that
Bob re-entered the world of expressive art.
Now Bob was truly "born" an artist, but his talent took diverse turns
as his career unfolded. As a teen, the National
Audubon Society published a
few of his drawings and that's when young Bob knew he had found his life's
work. It was a correspondence course form the Famous
Artists School in the late 1950s that really set Bob on his course. The
Famous Artists School taught techniques and skills, but also encouraged hopeful
budding artists to express
their own talents and imaginations. Bob later graduated with a degree in fine
arts from the University
of Georgia.
Bob early learned about the creative side of life. His dad
ran a commercial printing shop in Waynesboro, Georgia and it
was there young Bob learned design techniques necessary for good
layout. Before (finishing) college he worked for the Georgia
Forestry Commission where he designed their publications and
did graphic design work. He also worked for the
first
PBS station in Georgia as a student art designer.
After college graduation, Bob started a series of jobs in the
commercial art field, finally ending up with a position in advertising
and marketing management. This led to
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Talk about being transported in time and space! Artist Bob Glover
placed his wife Lynne in a 17th century Dutch home is a pose depicted
by Johannes Vermeer in Young Woman with a Water Jug.
The southern
black bear resides in Big Canoe, a wildlife sanctuary. This drawing of one standing on the alert was
contributed
to the Wing Ding auction, Big Canoe Tour of Homes. (2007)
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extensive travel, which Bob used as a reason to visit museums, exhibits and galleries all over the United States and Europe. His sketchbook was always in hand, reflecting Bob's credo that sketching is critical for an artist who paints.
But it was the chance encounter with a chicken lover in 2004 that allowed Bob to return to the artist within. Ever since, he has drawn and painted what he loves. At first his passion was landscapes. Not passive landscapes, but ones where the earth comes alive for the viewer. Bob doesn't just paint a scene, instead he combines many views from another time or place, to create an interpretation of what might be visualized. Tricky stuff but very impressive.
Lately, Bob has turned to a new form of expression, interpretations from
old movie scenes, particularly old westerns. Many of his pieces have been
on exhibit at the Booth Western Art
Museum. Of special note is his large
oil painting Adams
Ranch, which depicts the opening and final scenes of
True Grit.
A look at Bob Glover's Web site, www.BobGlover.com, is an interesting tour
of the artist's mind at work. Included are his sketchbooks and notes which
give fascinating insight to the structure and development of his artwork
Bob and his wife Lynne have lived at Big Canoe for 10 years. He has been
a member of the Big Canoe Artist's Club for four years and the word is,
he just might be president next year.
Recently Bob donated a pencil sketch of a bear to the Wing
Ding auction. Bears,
chickens, mountains, streams
... Bob Glover can paint and interpret most
anything. Check out this hometown artist for his view of the world, and
then be prepared to enjoy the scenery.
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The following drawings are studies of photographs from Extraordinary Chickens, a book of photographs by Stephen Green-Armytage (.Harry N. Abrams, publisher : ISBN:
0-8109-3343-8). They are linked to an additional drawing in the series done for a client.
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