Robert William Head
| For many years my work as an artist was abstract, although it was always fostered by feelings involving natural forces and my interest in many forms of music. A few years ago I became interested in a "sense of place" and began working "on site". These experiences caused me to become more and more interested in forms found in wilderness or semi-wilderness environments. In addition to the woodlands of Kentucky where I live I have become intensely interested in the land forms, vegetation, skies, and waters of British Columbia and Alaska. In 1993 my wonderful friend, Bill Brody (with whom I had become acquainted while I served as a visiting faculty member at the University of Alaska Fairbanks a few years before) invited me to join him, artist darleen masiak, and three climbers for my first venture into the Brooks Range. This intense experience became one of the most important in my artistic life. The wilderness landscape is overwhelming in its beauty and power. It is visually in a state of continual change; often dramatically so. The changing light, the often blustery winds, the driving rains that sometimes turn to sleet and snow even in summer are incredibly challenging to those of us who try to paint. Yet, experiencing the earth from such a place in such a way is profoundly moving. This unspoiled, vast and unpredictable landscape calls me back again and again. There is no place where I have set foot that makes me more aware that we live on a planet in an unfathomable universe of which we are all a part. |
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| On Site Study - Brooks Range, Upper Marsh Fork, Canning River | On Site Study - From the River, Upper Marsh Fork, Canning River Alkyd on canvas 40 x 18 in 1993 | On Site Study - Darleen's Rocks, Upper Marsh Fork, Canning River Alkyd on canvas 40 x 18 in 1993 | Marsh Fork, Canning River, Brooks Range |
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| Darleen's Mountain, Upper Marsh Fork, Canning River | Darleen's Mountain II, Upper Marsh Fork, Canning River | Requiem For Roger Alkyd on canvas 72 x 36 in 1993 | Looking West at Roger's Mountains - On Site Study - Lower Marsh Fork, Canning River Alkyd on birch panel 12 x 7 in 1993 |
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| On Site Study - Looking South, Lower Marsh Fork, Canning River Alkyd on canvas 40 x 18 in 1994 | On Site Study - Looking East Across the River, Lower Marsh Fork, Canning River | Developed On Site Study, Looking North Into the Clouds, Lower Marsh Fork, Canning River Alkyd on canvas 40 x 18 in 1994-95 | Wind Aided On Site Study - Near the Wheatear's Nest - Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Alkyd on canvas 40 x 18 in 1996 |
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| On Site Study - Wolf's Ridge - Hula Hula River - Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Alkyd on canvas 40 x 18 in 1996 | Variation I - From On Site Study - Wolf's Ridge - Hula Hula River - Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Alkyd on canvas 72 x 36 in 1996 | Variation II - From On Site Study - Wolf's Ridge - Hula Hula River - Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Alkyd on canvas 72 x 36 in 1996-97 | Near the River - From On Site Study - Hula Hula River - ANWR Brooks Range Oil on Canvas 40 x 18 in 1996-98 |
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| From On-Site Study (7/96) - Hulahula River, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Oil on Birch Panel 15 x 8 in 2003 | |||
| Artwork ©1993-2007 by Robert William Head. Used with permission of the artist. Artwork photos by Barry Johnson. | |||