Biography
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Free-lance Fine Artist
Austin, Dallas and Houston, Texas,
Developed and maintained a reputation for producing quality depictions of Texas landscapes, wildlife and other western scenes.
SHOWS
American Royal Association Show, Kansas City
Brazos Art Classic, College Station, Texas
Cheyenne Show, Cheyenne
Southeastern Wildlife Exposition, Charleston
Stamford Art Foundation, Stamford, Texas
Miniatures, 91 92 White Oak Gallery, Elko, Minnesota
Mountain Oyster Show, Tucson
National Finals Art Auction, Las Vegas
River Oaks Classic, Houston
PUBLISHED PRINTS
Gulf Coast Conservation Association
Ducks Unlimited
Hadley House
American Masters Foundation
PUBLICATIONS
Southwest Art, Feature, December 1983
Sporting Classics, Feature, May/June 1992
Gulf Tide, Feature, May/June 1981
Houston Home and Garden
Texas Homes
Texas Hunters Directory, Selected one of the Top 10 Texas Artists
Wildlife Art News
SPECIAL RECOGNITION
Ducks Unlimited Artist of the Year, 1990
COLLECTED BY
Texaco
Brown and Root
Marathon Oil
Granada Corporation
Bing Crosby Family
Shell Oil
Montgomery Ward
Private Collections
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Houston, Dallas, and Austin, Texas 1985 Present
Robinson taught private workshops of three to five days duration for up to twenty individuals on various aspects of illustration and painting. Courses emphasize drawing, color, values, composition and perspective, showing how the basics apply in abstract and nonobjective, as well as realistic painting. The artist also showed how these elements are used in other fields such as interior design, architecture, landscaping, furniture design, commercial art and advertising.
COMMERCIAL ARTIST / GRAPHICS DESIGNER
Houston, Texas 1963- 1974
Robinson produced a broad range of graphic designs and illustrations for industrial, architectural and commercial applications. Extensive experience in layout, design, illustration, production and camera-ready copy for logos, letterheads, annual reports, billboards, magazine ads and other forms of advertising. Employment and contract affiliations during the period included Brown and Root, Visual Concepts and Graphicenter.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Texas Association of Professional Artist
EDUCATION
The University of Houston 1965- 1968
South Texas Junior College 1963- 1965
Completed 100 hours of curriculum leading to B.F.A
Submitted by Whistle Pik Gallery
Biography from Whistle Pik Galleries
James Robinson, was a native of the Lone Star State, proud of his heritage. His ancestors were early pioneers to Texas in the early 1840's. In those days Texas' unspoiled beauty, untraveled terrain, rugged bluffs and creeks dominated. James was inspired by their stories and chose Texas's rugged landscape as his primary subject matter. An intimate knowledge of Texas and the many facets of the western landscape are obvious when one views a painting created by the artist.
Born in Houston in 1944, James always knew he would be an artist. He was committed to his education and earned a BFA. He studied both commercial and fine art as a free-lance designer and illustrator, polishing his painting skills on the side. It was at this stage in his career that his dad, J.C. literally absconded with one of his paintings and marched into a local gallery to show what his son could do. From that day on, he dedicated his life to fine art and has enjoyed a most remarkable career.
James has always been influenced by such artists as Frank Tenney Johnson, James Reynolds, Howard Terpning, John Singer Sargent and Joaquin Sorolla. He seeks to evoke these qualities in his own work and establish his own niche in western art by unique combinations of light, color and action to leave a lasting impact on the viewer.
James won numerous awards including "Artist's Choice" in 2010 and "Best Group" in 2007 with a cash award of $5000 from the Briscoe Museum's Night of Artist's show in San Antonio, Texas. Another honor was "Olaf Wieghorst Award" for the best painting at the 2007 Mountain Oyster Show in Tucson, Arizona.
