Robert Pittam

In May 2024 , we are very pleased to present a collection of work by painter Rob Pittam for the first time. As a child Rob spent family holidays in Cornwall, where brilliant sun-drenched summer days on the beach inspired a lifelong awareness of the emotional power of light. As a still life painter, Rob’s focus is on the way Cornwall’s unique light sculpts everyday forms. Strongly influenced by the works of Vermeer and Edward Hopper, Rob aims for a certain quality of stillness in the tone, texture and composition of his paintings that give a heightened status to his subjects. His works often include fish, whose perfectly evolved forms offer colour, pattern, texture, reflectivity and three-dimensional shapes that ‘sculpt’ light and shade. They can also be read as metaphors for the tranquillity of a life spent beside the sea. Rob works in a classical technique, using the translucency of acrylic paint over a pencil drawing and monochrome underpainting on board, building tonal depth through multiple glazes of colour. His paintings are also varnished and float framed within a dark grey deep wood moulding. Rob Pittam studied art and illustration at Rugby College, Swindon College and Kingston upon Thames University. He has exhibited in Cornwall, the Cotswolds, Bath and London, and his works are held in private collections in the United States, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Scotland and the Shetland Islands.