Robert Tokley paints with oil paint on hand stretched canvas by the artist. His inspiration comes from the compilation of works created by the Canadian Art Movement of the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson. By using only a few bright colours to accomplish a mood or feeling of the outdoors while expressing the mood or feeling of the artist at that time.
His goal is to create a unique scene or to evoke a feeling, memory or mood that the viewer can identify with. After all presenting a work of art that sparks an emotion, mood, or memory of something the viewer can identify with is the ultimate goal of any artist.
“Art is like life, you only get from it, what you put into it. You sometimes have this preconceived notion, or conscious idea of what you would like your piece of art to be when it is finished. But after you put brush to canvas it almost always turns out to be something entirely different than what you originally wanted it to be.”
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Robert Tokley grew up in the small community of Madoc Ontario and now lives with his wife and three children in Belleville Ontario. His ability to create art was evident at an early age when he won a remembrance day poster contest at the age of 12. Robert spent some time working in the oil and gas industry in northern Alberta before a work related injury eventually caused him to return home. But that seemingly insignificant injury would turn out to be the catalyst that drove him to where he is today, no longer homeless and 5 years clean and sober. He is a self taught artist who decided to pick up a paint brush in the winter of 2012 and began showing and selling his work in 2013. He’s had substantial sales of his paintings in shows in Belleville and Prince Edward county.
His paintings have also been featured in the Watershed magazine and the online journal The Mud Season Review. Robert’s interpretations of his earlier landscapes can be attributed to his love of the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson with the use of bright and bold colours. But like many artist’s his inspirations are continually changing like the Canadian landscape through out their seasons. He believes art is like a living breathing thing that is changing and morphing into it’s finale form of a finished piece, only moments before it goes out the door. As an artist he is forever trying to evoke a mood or memory for the viewer of familiar time and place. Beyond any monetary value, inspiration is his biggest factor in creating his art and his ultimate goal is having that piece move or inspire someone else.
