Robert Reynolds
Robert Reynolds is a California artist whose paintings celebrate the natural beauty found in the land and waters that surround him on the Central California Coast and during his time spent in the High Sierra. His work defines and reaffirms our important relationships with the world of nature that eternally provides us with so many visual gifts. He feels that those qualities that reaffirm a timeless, spiritual beauty are essential to our everyday lives. Reynolds understands that the subject matter alone is not what determines a successful painting. His chosen landscape subjects are graphically reinvented within his own personal vision. Utilizing the natural world as a meaningful metaphor in his paintings continues to be a motivating force behind his work. With his perceptive vision, combined with confident design and painting skills, he captures those splendid moments, forever frozen in time, that touch many of us in a unique way.
The paintings of Robert Reynolds are in art collections throughout the United States and abroad. Images of his paintings have graced the pages and covers of national art magazines and his work is included in over a dozen art books. Reynolds has assembled an impressive body of work and list of honors. He is a past winner of the Gold (1994) and Bronze (1993) honors in the California Discovery Awards, and the Bronze Award winner (1996) and Finalist (1999, 2000) in Landscape for the Artist Magazine's National Art Competition. Reynolds is listed in a number of national journals, including Marquis's "Who's Who in the West", "Who's Who in American Art", "Who's Who in America" and "Who's Who in the World".
Awards, Commissions and Publications
The U.S. Postal Service commissioned Reynolds in 1986 for its stamp commemorating the famed Hearst Castle. Selected Central Coast Wine Classic Commemorative Artist (1998 and 2002), Reynolds' painting entitled "Vineyard Light" (1998) is held in the collection of Beringer Wine Estates/Meridian Vineyard Winery and his recent painting "Young Vines/Late Sun" (2002) was purchased by a prominent California private collector. Reynolds was also a winner of the Purchase Prize Award in Ironstone Vineyard's national art competition (1999). Posters were published using his painting image to celebrate the annual event.
National publications regularly highlight Robert Reynolds' work. Features and occasional cover stories include: The American Artist, The Artist Magazine, Watercolor Magic, the American Artist WATERCOLOR magazine, North Light magazine, and Ford Times. His work has appeared on the cover of two issues of the San Luis Obispo Magazine (2001 and 2002) and on the cover of the Harbinger magazine (2000) published in Arnold, California. In addition to his own book, "Painting Nature's Peaceful Places" by Robert Reynolds with Patrick Seslar (North Light Books), Reynolds work has been published in over 12 art books including the prestigious, biennial "Best of Watercolor" books, Splash 3, Splash 4, Splash 5 and Splash 6. Many of his paintings were featured in the books, "How to Make Your Watercolors Look Professional" by Carole Katchen (North Light Books), "Back into My Body and New Poems" by Glenna Luschei (Mille Grazie Press), and in the book, "Horses of San Simeon" by Mrs. Randolph Hearst Jr. (San Simeon Press). In Mrs. Hearst's book, she cites that she was inspired to write her book after seeing a painting that she commissioned Reynolds to do of the Hearst Castle location (page 24).
Education and Community
Cal Poly University Professor of Art/Emeritus, Reynolds is a past recipient of the university's Distinguished Teaching Award and the Cal Poly President's Art Award. He is also a past department chairman of the nationally recognized Art and Design Program at Cal Poly. Reynolds is an alumnus with honors, of the prestigious Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California.
Each summer, Robert Reynolds holds an intensive six-day watercolor workshop at Bear Valley, located in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains. During October, he holds a Central Coast workshop in the town of Cambria, California, near his home in San Luis Obispo where he lives with his wife, Patricia.
The work of Robert Reynolds is represented by the Johnson Gallery, San Luis Obispo, California and the Harbinger Gallery located in Arnold, California. By Reynolds' choice, both galleries are located in the communities where he finds and paints the subjects that hold meaningful significance for him. To a great extent, the elusive sparks that imbue a painting with life are due to one's alliance with the chosen subject.
"The search for a meaningful subject is, in reality, a search for ourselves… those subjects that we see with our hearts with as much certainty as those we see with our eyes"
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"Long Shadows/Irish Hills"
"Change of Seasons"
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