Robin Wellner, Artist

The artistic expression of people has been around for as long as people have begun to create. As far back as cave paintings in Spain to paleolithic era sculptures and effigies, people have looked to each other and recreated themselves over and over again, attempting to forever encapsulate what it is to be a person. These attempts would eventually culminate into the art of painted portraiture. They are some of our most celebrated works of art—who doesn’t know of Mona Lisa and her coy not-smile? And with the growth of technology, where everyone has a professional grade camera in their pocket at all times, the art of painted Portraits might seem like a relic of the past. Who needs paint and a canvas when in a fraction of a second you can capture the world around with a click of a button? But there is something to be said for the energy, vitality, and life paintings can hold that photos often just can’t hope to emulate. That’s where artists like Robin Wellner come in.

Although she has spent nearly her entire life affiliated with the arts, she has only relatively recently called herself an artist. She tackles a breadth of subjects, from portraits, to plein air landscapes—even the family pet. If there is one common thread in her work, it is the joy that she has for life that is apparent in every piece she creates. It is a joy that is shown through her energetic brushstrokes, her play with color, and her focus on light—her works often bright and effervescent. Every brushstroke carries importance, a strike of pigmented vitality and dimension—qualities that are so often flattened and diminished in photographs. And while she loves painting nearly everything, her most sincere passion is people. Robin is captivated by faces, by people, forever striving to replicate their essence on the canvas, and her ability to capture the humanness of her subjects has won her awards and accolades from all over the country. People are compelling, and preserving them in paint is a labor of love for Robin. 

To create something like this is a bit of an intimate process. For Robin herself, she likes to sit with the person, get to know them personally so she can better portray them. This isn’t always possible, as many portraits Robin paints are of those who have already passed. In cases like these, Robin then looks to the family, trying to get to know her subject through the eyes of their loved ones. She likes to know things about them, the little tidbits and quirks that made them them, almost like an interview for the person she is about to paint. She works most often from photographs, editing them and adding her own artistic perspective, and if photographs are hard to come by, Robin will use a mix of photographs and live models. Everything she does, every bit of effort she puts into these works she does in hopes of recreating the spirit of the people she paints.

There is no better example of her skill in this than one of her most recent portraits (see fig. 1). In it is a young woman, leaning back and smiling, seemingly glowing, her bright strawberry blonde hair in stark contrast to the dark grey-blue background. It is a special piece, made for a friend who’s daughter passed away some years ago, the young woman who is so full of life in this painting. Not only was Robin able to capture the young woman’s likeness, but her spirit as well. As Robin thinks about it, she was not only merely painting the person in the photo, but everything that came along with that person, recognizing the profound ability paintings have to bring something to life. She hopes as the work hangs in her friend’s home, it is able to forever bring forth good memories of her daughter.

It is a bit of a lost practice, the art of painted portraits. They aren’t as convenient as photographs, and most of our lives in the world today are driven by convenience. But what they lack in convenience they more than make up for in sentiment and intention. A photograph is a moment captured in time—a portrait is that person, their quintessence, forever immortalized. They are a more tangible thing, carefully and painstakingly constructed by talented and passionate artists like Robin herself.

In her own words, “we are all works of art.”