robin  coventry

passed away in 2002 at the ripe young age of 57.   He was much loved by all who knew him and his genuine compassion, unique personality and creative wizardry will be missed.   He enjoyed  philosophizing by candlelight, composing eloquent letters over strong cups of tea and working in his vegetable garden.  Most of all he enjoyed living a quiet secluded life where he could envelop himself in the meditation of his art work.  When he worked on his pen and ink water colors, he withdrew from time and space and entered a world of archetype, myth and magic.

 Born in Edinburgh , Scotland , Robin Coventry attended the Glasgow School of Art. After becoming the youngest artist to have his work hung with that of Rembrandt in the Glasgow Art Galleries , he also exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy , The Glasgow Institute of Fine Art, and in London before moving to the California in 1972. Having trained his eye on the decaying Glasgow tenement buildings, he used his talent to create intricate etchings of the aging homesteads, the enchanting wildlife, and the ubiquitous coastline of Big Sur.

Midway through Robin’s career, he took a bold step turning away from the realistic landscapes that he had become known for, and began focusing his energy on his own “lyrical abstract” vision. Rooted in a technical ability to capture the smallest detail, Robin reached to convey a deeper, more intangible side of reality. Influenced by Paul Klee, Morris Graves, Mark Tobey and the Japanese Zen masters, he attempted to express eternity through the cycles of nature and the ages of various cultures - the ancient and the unborn all found in the miraculous moment of the Now. “I’m trying to beat the computer!” he exclaimed, as he balanced his command of technique with his secret love of chaos. Within his nine by fourteen “wee gems”, which could take up to a month to finish, he communicated the lost beauty of rusted machinery, decaying bits of tree bark, or the forgotten wing of a moth.   His use of line, color and depth show that he possessed a wise understanding of his medium as he weaved the patterns of nature with the simple poetry of the abstract conveying a distinctive impression of the Spirit that moves behind all things.

Over the past thirty years, Robin Coventry’s contemplative and evocative water colors, drawings, and etchings have attracted an international following among collectors. He was never able to part with his best works, however, and held back a collection with the hopes to someday make lithographs. With his passing, his son Jamie Coventry inherited this legacy of Robin’s, and he has plans to make prints, a book of his art and poems, and a CD of his poetry set to music. Robin lives on through his art, and though he has passed, his spirit still dances through each piece that he has left behind.  Some fifty original art paintings and prints will be showing at the Big Sur Gallery in Carmel , spanning some 35 years of his work.  The retrospective is presented as part of a celebration of what would have been Robin’s sixtieth birthday and the time he spent on this planet with us.  Please join us in sending off this peaceful warrior of the paintbrush to a poet’s Nirvana of eternal bliss!