Artist's leap of faith
pays dividends One of two paintings inspired by the Round The World Clipper race that set sail from Hull last year. BELOW: Rob at Myton Gallery with another of his works PICTURES: IAN CLELAND |
| IAN MIDGLEY meets
paraglider-turned-artist Rob Sutton, whose paintings inspired by the Round The World Clipper yacht race have created quite a stir . . . |
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Rob Sutton used to get his kicks throwing himself
off cliffs. During the ’90s, there was barely a spare weekend when the BP engineer couldn’t be found launching himself from a hillside or perilous drop to paraglide across exotic mountain ranges or sprawling country landscapes. From New Zealand to Spain, Turkey to Austria, Rob has ridden the thermals across many countries on several continents – often sailing up to 30 miles with nothing but an understanding of cumulous clouds, rising hot air and the billowing parachute above to keep him aloft. Then, several years ago, Rob’s wife Yvonne politely requested he find himself a slightly-less dangerous hobby. “To be fair she was right,” grins the greying, tousle-haired 45-year-old. “We’ve got three daughters now so it didn’t really make sense to keep going out risking life and limb every Saturday. “Priorities change, don’t they?” The substitute to replace the adrenaline rush of leaping into the unknown came from an unexpected – and slightly more sedate source. For when Yvonne arrived home one day with a box of “cheap acrylics”, Rob says |
it was goodbye paragliding and hello painting. “My wife had a photograph of the kids and she asked me to do a sketch of it,” remembers Rob. “I’d always been naturally good at sketching and drawing at school. I was always doodling and drawing at home – copying the pictures off the front of Airfix boxes and things like that. “My teacher even wanted me to become an art teacher – but after one thing or another I ended up getting an apprenticeship and I worked my way up to becoming an engineer.” When the family portrait turned out unexpectedly well, Rob was encouraged to take on more ambitious subjects. His first large canvas attempt – a Dali-esque landscape of surreal mazes leading through a door to a promised land called Beyond The System – was accepted for display at the prestigious Open Exhibition at Hull’s Ferens Art Gallery. His second and third works were inspired by the Round The World Clipper race that set sail from Hull last year – and instantly caught the eye of marine art lovers. He may still be a relative novice as an artist, but there’s no denying Rob has made an immediate splash with his marine paintings. |
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| "Painting the sky from
the comfort of his own home rather than floating through it has its own rewards too. For a start, if he falls he’s only three feet from the ground" |
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Both paintings portray the Clipper yachts making their stately departure from the Humber estuary as they prepare to embark on an epic circumnavigation of the globe. When several work colleagues at BP expressed an interest in having copies of the first painting, Rob approached Myton art gallery owner Charlie Newham, in Hull’s Hepworth Arcade, asking if it would be possible to reproduce it. Such was its quality, showing the yachts against a backdrop of fireboats firing celebratory plumes of water high into the sky that, quite frankly, the gallery owner didn’t believe Rob was a novice. “I think he was a bit taken aback,” smiles Hull-born Rob, who now lives in Ganstead with his wife and daughters Jess, Meg and Cody. “He said: ‘Is this really your second painting?’ “He probably was a bit suspicious – but he asked if I had any more I could bring in to show him. I did, and he said ‘Would you fancy doing some prints to see if we can sell a few’?” Gallery owner Charlie Newham says, for a fledgling artist, Rob’s work is incredibly accomplished. “To say he’s never done anything before, they are remarkably good. The fact he chose to start on such ambitious subjects, on such a large canvas, where so much could go wrong, is impressive.” For Rob, working with an easel and paint has now completely eclipsed his high-flying paragliding career – but that doesn’t mean his |
knowledge of the skies and the ever-changing canopy of clouds has completely gone to waste. One glance at his paintings and it is obvious this is someone who knows his nimbostratus from his stratocumulus. “If you look at the paintings I think the clouds are quite prominent,” he says. “When you’re paragliding you’re constantly reading the clouds and looking for thermals to keep you airborne. “You get to know quite a lot about clouds and I find them really intriguing to paint. I think that’s why they feature so much in my work.” But painting the sky from the comfort of his own Holderness home – rather than floating through it – has its own rewards too, says Rob. For a start, if he falls he’s only three feet from the ground. “It’s certainly less hazardous falling off a chair than it is from 1,400ft,” he laughs. “Painting is just something I can do at home at the dining room table while the girls are doing their homework. It makes it quite a family activity – and it’s nice to be able to spend more time with my daughters. “Do I get the same thrill from doing this as I did from paragliding? You know, I think I do. It’s quite exciting to stand back and see something you’ve created out of nothing, to think, ‘blimey I’ve done that’. “To be honest, I only ever did it for my own pleasure so to think that other people |
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