Robyn’s artistic journey was fuelled by her obsession with fantastical characters and ideas from books and movies growing up in the 80’s. She wanted to create her own unique imagery so started practising drawing as a child. After developing an early interest in Surrealist, Symbolist and Victorian Gothic art, Robyn found herself over the years drawing most of her inspiration from artists such as Robert Longo, the Starn Twins, and Ghada Amer to name a few.

Robyn completed a Diploma in Visual Arts and later earned a Bachelor of Fine Art in 2010 from the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, where she majored in painting. For more than a decade, her work centred around the human face – the features, expressions, and masks people wear – exploring the ‘pokerface’. During this time Robyn captured countless ‘selfies’ to seek out the most raw, confrontational and complex moments which she then re-interpreted and expressed through different media.

Her stitched pieces with their long loose threads add another dimension to her work. When portraying animals they convey a softer sensibility, like sketching on paper with free flowing lines. With facial portraits though, piercing through the material to secure what is open aligns itself with the closure of wounds and masking something that is otherwise laid bare. This allows the stitching process to become an integral part of the final outcome. Characteristically bold and monochromatic, Robyn’s paintings are created to provoke a visceral response from the viewer.

More recently however she has been experimenting with the use of paper collage to add texture and colour to the final outcome. Her dot-rendered and patterned drawings with felt- tip pen explore the interplay between predominantly unplanned subconscious scribbles and the controlled method of dot rendering by which they take form. Through this process, the resulting image will often display strong symbolism which can be subjectively interpreted. Robyn continues to explore the space between intention and unpredictability, inviting viewers into a world where imagination flourishes and the subconscious is subtly revealed through every brushstroke, ink dot, and sewn thread.