We were lucky to catch up with Robin McCoy recently and have shared our conversation below.

Robin, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I fell into fine art oil painting during college. I was in school for illustration and related commercial arts, but used my electives for painting courses and fell in love with the media and process. I’ve been drawing since early childhood, so this process gave me a similar, freeform, creative outlet that I enjoyed back then.

I’ve painted mainly for the joy of it for most of the last 30 years. Since I took my first ‘Intro to painting’ elective. Only more recently have I wanted to focus on that as a career, while moving away from the commercial arts that has been my living since college (graphic design, user interface design for games and web).

A lot of what I’ve learned over those past decades have been done in relative isolation. I’m not self-taught, but I discovered techniques and tricks that made my stuff unique while working in a vacuum. I finally found a working studio here in Asheville, NC to both paint and display. It’s fantastic to share space with other artists now, but honestly, I would not have been comfortable to have done so earlier in life. I felt like I found my voice in the last 10 years, which gave the courage to display. It has been a huge roadblock to change to this career later in life though. Networking, building an audience, learning a different art biz is like starting from square one.

One of the main obstacles, which I think holds true for most creatives with a passion outside of the 9 to 5, is to find the energy to create when you are beat from a work day. You have to want to do it, sometime force yourself when you’d rather zone out in front of the TV. I’ve had lazy spots in those years, but always managed to return to it. I’m always a bit amazed of how much work I managed to create during those years.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a lifetime artist, but have made my living in commercial design. Drawing and sketching was my one and only hobby as a kid, and it was a natural, easy skill for me. Visual arts were only option I considered for college. I majored in illustration, where I suspected I could make a career out of this natural ability. Painting was one of the skills I was introduced to then, and I was mesmerized. I learned oil painting as an introduction to painting, and the way the pigment is applied and blended, along with the fragrant smell of the paints hooked me. The concepts introduced in those fine art classes gave a different view on what art could be outside of the restrictive, client driven industry I was studying. I didn’t know that was an option! It was an eye-opener for a naive 18 year old, and a return to the pure creative joy of childhood.

I didn’t study painting in-depth enough to consider it a path outside of college, but I constantly tried to improve on my own through the years while working inside of various graphic design related industries. I had fallen into graphic design after school due to the high demand for that skillset. I worked for a few internet start-ups during the Web V.1 bubble in the late ’90s, then in the early 2000s as a user interface designer. After a series of internet startups, I would make a lateral industry move into the video game arena. The skillsets are complementary, but allowed for more use of my creative skills such as illustration. I still work on games, websites and various corporate branding as part of my career.

The move into fine art painting as a career is new endeavor. I’ve been painting after work and in my down time for 30 years, but only as a creative outlet – as one would garden or craft in a workshop. It was never about money, so I was able to develop a style that wasn’t compromised by the need to sell to pay the rent. It allowed me to experiment with materials and subject matter that appealed to my aesthetics without outside input. It has put me in a unique position now that I’ve moved into displaying and selling. My art tends to stand out, even in a city with a district with hundreds of working artists.

I love to create larger scale oil paintings – expressionist, mostly based on the deconstruction of the human figure. Larger scale demands attention from the viewer and allows for actual scale figures and big, swooping, human sized strokes. I attempt to infuse emotion and intensity of the human experience without a specific narrative. Color, composition and movement trump realism or clarity of subject.

It’s inspiring to feel the connection to an old art form that’s been built on during the lives of thousands and thousands of past and contemporary artists. I feel like I’m part of an ancient lineage. Painting is an archaic art form, though it still feels relevant in certain environments, so there will always be an audience. The people who enjoy it have to search it out. It’s a challenge, to both create and sell.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My main drive is to improve as an artist and have more eyes on my work. Having a full time space in a public gallery has allow for me to put more hours into painting. In the past I had to work around full time jobs. Now that dynamic has swapped. I want to be more prolific, bolder and focused. Sharing space with other artists while working in a public space has been amazing for confidence, improvement and inspiration. The greatest joy is when someone connects with my style.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I think that conditioning myself to make certain marks that comes for years of practice and trial and error. It’s like a fingerprint, and is sometimes effortless and individually distinctive. That feeling keeps me coming back.

I don’t think any art is easy to create, but the problem solving aspect is incredibly satisfying if I can work around various issues to complete a piece. At a point I’m not sure exactly how I’ve created this image, but suddenly there it is. When I’ve finished this thing, it looks like mine, even with my influences front and center. I’m sure it’s similar to an athlete’s muscle memory – less analyzing and let the hands and mind execute.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.robinmccoy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrobinmccoy/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrobinmccoy/
• Other: https://modernmusegallery.com