A special father-son show with Robert Moore and Robbie Moore September 14 2024, 0 Comments

Robert Moore is one of the top impressionist painters in the Western United States, and now his son, Robbie Moore, is following in his artistic footsteps. Our latest exhibition features both of them, including new works they finished just before the show.

Robert’s ability to create striking, impressionistic paintings has left a distinctive mark on the art world over the past few decades. His signature mark making, with its layers of compelling textures and patterns, cause him to stand out within a long and notable lineage of internationally-renowned impressionist painters.

From his rich use of color, no one would believe he’s color blind. But, he sees the world in only blues and yellows. As a result, he works with an assistant, who arranges an ordered system of color progression on his palette.

“I don’t know what the colors are, but I know they’re beautiful,” he says.

Though he became a renowned artist — and mentor — decades ago, he says it’s just been in the last five years or so that he fully understands what leads to natural beauty on the canvas. “That beauty is out there in nature,” he says, using the example of color progression within the trunk of an aspen. As sunlight hits the tree, warm light reflects onto the shadow side of the trunk near the ground, but as you look up toward the top of the aspen, the sky affects the trunk’s hues. “There are a thousand steps between the warmth down by the ground and the blue up at the top,” he says. And it’s those steps, or subtle color progressions, that he has mastered. “I’ve trained myself to look for the stepping of harmonious colors that are related but that clearly produce the variety of what we see in nature,” he says.

Both father and son have remained in Idaho, where Robert originally grew up, surrounded by glorious mountains and forests. Robert exposed all of his six kids to the artistic lifestyle, but Robbie, the fifth child, seems to have soaked it up the most. “He was right there in the mix, either with me painting or going to shows,” Robert says, adding that he’d even paint with Robbie in a backpack when his wife had her hands full with the other kids. “He’s got the genes, and he’s got the gift.”

“Growing up I was like a fish in water. I was totally saturated (in art),” Robbie says. “I didn’t know anything else. There was paint on clothes, paint in cars, paint everywhere.”

As he earned his bachelors in business administration, he realized how important art was to him, so he began to paint and study the subject, working as one of five or so apprentices his father has at any given time. Though the two paint similar subject matter because they tend to take the same outdoor trips, Robbie is focusing on replicating what he sees before he takes the leap to interpret it. “I want to build a solid foundation for a lifelong career,” he says, adding that learning and understanding art fuels a desire to learn even more. “I just take a lot of joy in the pursuit of craftsmanship.”

On Sept. 10, he completed the last of a series of paintings representing the transition from late summer to fall, in sizes ranging from 10x8 to 48x60, with the smallest depicting summer and the largest portraying late fall with snow-covered peaks. “The energy and the color just ramped up with the size,” he says.

Meanwhile, his father worked on “Down the Road,” a new 72x60 painting depicting fall colors within the Rocky Mountains. “I was attracted to this scene during a trip in the Rockies because of the brilliant fall colors. With the aspen trunks being backlit, there are beautiful progressions of color in the reflected light,” he says. “Also, I appreciate how the road is such a welcoming element in the composition, leading the eye into the distance and home.”

Other works within the show include Robbie’s bright fall foliage and mountains with moody or clear skies, while Robert’s works showcase color bursts of garden and wildflowers, as well as wintery and fall scenes. The exhibition offers a great chance to witness the budding of a new artist and the mastery of an established one within the same family. “I have no doubt that Robbie’s going to be better than I am in time, because he can see color, and he’s good with color,” Robert says.

So go see for yourself!