Rob Schouten Gallery • At Greenbank Farm • 765 Wonn Road, C- 103 • Greenbank WA 98253 • 360-222-3070
ROB SCHOUTEN TALKS ABOUT HIS ART:
My paintings are about soul and people recognize that and see elements of their own journey and their way of holding the mysteries of life reflected in the symbolism of the image. In my paintings I reveal the deeper reality underlying common reality, and so everyone who has had experiences of insight into that feels connected with the symbols which express that. By presenting these symbols in an often surprising way people's view of how they know the world to be is challenged, which may lead them to examine their beliefs and their soul more deeply.
As the years pass my paintings have become increasingly personal. And as we are all so much the same, I hope my work touches and moves the viewer more personally as well.
I think it is important to use beauty as a vehicle into people's hearts, because ultimately the world is a place of harmonious beauty more than a place of suffering. Connecting people with that beauty and reminding them that the true ground of life is harmonious beauty is very important in a time when the outer world of ordinary reality can look pretty dark.
Feeling connected via the symbolism and beauty of the painting to that harmonious ground people are inspired and feel in accord with the positive forces of life. Which means their actions will be inspired and come from that place and have a positive effect on the outer reality we all share as this world.
In 2001 Jane Goodall got in touch and asked if I would like to collaborate with her on “some chimp art”. It was wonderful to have a chance to become acquainted with her, and work with her on a painting depicting the chimpanzees of Gombe. Whenever someone says to me that one person can not really make a difference, I point to Jane.
BIOGRAPHY
Rob Schouten was born in 1956 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. His early interest in art and drawing led to a four-year study of graphic design at the School for Graphic Arts in Utrecht, The Netherlands, from which he graduated in 1977. Schouten moved to the United States in 1979 and began his career as a visual artist in Seattle in 1980.
Here Rob's fascination with symbolism and surrealism brought him to the works of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell. At the same time exposure to Asian design, art and culture began to inform and influence his work. An increased understanding of modern physics and eastern philosophies further broadened Schouten's traditional beliefs into a more universal view of our human experience. This combined with a deep love of nature and planet Earth form the ground from which he draws his inspiration.
Rob initially worked in graphite on paper, then became self taught in watercolor, which he pursued for eighteen years. During this time he received wide spread recognition for his work through greeting cards and prints published and distributed in the USA, Canada and Europe by Great Path Publishing. Within that period, HarperCollins published forty-five of Schouten's paintings in The Power Deck, a set of divination cards written by Lynn V. Andrews, which is still in print today. He was also a founding member of the Seattle based artist collective Dharmic Engineers (1983 - 2000). In 1999 he started oil painting, which is his current medium of choice.
Schouten and his wife, poet Victory Lee Schouten, live on Whidbey Island in the NW United States. His paintings are featured in private collections around the world.
