Collection: Robert Gladden : Painter : Swansea

Now living in South Wales, Robert Gladden spent much of his life in eastern England, beneath its vast, overarching skies.

Although an alumnus of the Prince of Wales’s Institute of Architecture (1994–95), Robert is largely self-taught as an artist. He works primarily in mixed media, combining watercolour, pen and ink, oil pastel and collage.

With a background in architecture, it is perhaps unsurprising that buildings feature prominently in his work. Robert was part of the team tasked with completing Bury St Edmunds Cathedral, described as the last Gothic Revival building in Britain.

His artistic influences are wide-ranging, from Renaissance architectural pattern books and Edwardian illustrators such as F. L. Griggs, to artists as diverse as Moroni and David Hockney. However, his greatest inspiration comes from the British Romantic and Neo-Romantic traditions. Samuel Palmer and the twentieth-century artist John Piper are particular favourites.

Both Palmer and Piper, like many others drawn to these traditions, travelled to Wales in search of inspiration, including the beautiful Tywi Valley. It seems fitting that Robert has now made South Wales his home, surrounded by the very landscapes that have inspired generations of artists.