Robert MaGaw

Robert’s work has been compared to George Innes, N.C. Wyeth and Wolf Kahn. Critics describe his style as impressionist, tonal and even “dream-like”. In a recent article, Ralph Blumenthal of The New York Times, called Robert’s landscapes: “…luminous…executed in his signature vibrant palette and bold brushwork.” It is indeed his interpretation of color and light in the world around him that give Robert’s paintings such spirit and life. To people who ask where he learned to paint, or for an interpretation of his technique, he explains that he has no formal artistic training – “this is what I love to do.”

Born in 1949 and raised in the farmlands of Ohio, Robert’s early love of nature was reflected in sketches of the animals and woodlands that surrounded his boyhood home. After returning from military service, he moved to New York where his innate sense of style and design earned him a highly successful career as an architect, as well as a designer of interiors, textiles, furniture and graphics. Painting, however, always remained his passion. He painted whenever his busy schedule permitted, until, just as he was about to retire from architecture in 1994, an opportunity to become a professional artist presented itself.

He was asked by his friend and well-known artist, Ruth Baderian to enter a juried show of American and French artists gathered in New York. The acclaim his paintings received at that exhibition brought him several prominent commissions and paved the way for his future as an artist.

His career as a painter received a further boost in 1995, when the Relais & Chateau resort, Lake Placid Lodge, acquired over 80 of Robert’s landscapes to adorn their guest rooms, cabins and to exhibit in their own Great Camp Gallery. In 1998, when the Lodge tapped him to create a mural for their new conference facility, he painted “Adirondack Fantasy”, a twenty-eight foot long visual journey through his beloved north country.

Though he continues to travel extensively, he finds most of the themes for his paintings right in his own ‘backyard’.

“Beauty can exist anywhere. The subjects in my paintings seldom have any great significance of ‘place’. They’re just bits of the landscapes that most of us pass by every day. But, in one never-come-again moment, when they’re splashed with the fresh light of dawn or the fiery glow of a sunset, this ordinary scenery takes on a grandeur that can be breath-taking. I simply try to capture as much of it as I can before it all fades away.”

As demand for Robert’s work continues steadily to grow, his paintings may be found in the art holdings of Amman Resorts, Georgia-Pacific, McDonald’s Corporation, as well as a number of galleries and private collections throughout the United States, Asia and Europe.