Rob Hain – exhibiting this month at Art Amatoria on Bellevue Crescent – was born in Dorset in 1952, and received his art education at Banbury and Loughborough, where he graduated in 1977.
He turned professional in 1981, and has exhibited throughout the UK since. His work is not bound by any one style, and has included gorgeously coloured abstracts as well as landscapes and populated towns and streets.
Career highlights so far include ceiling-mural work for The Italian Centre in Glasgow, for which he received a Civic Trust Award; Artist in Residence at the Tweed Festival; and inclusion in the Simpsons of Piccadilly cultural exposition of the Scottish Borders. (Hain's studio is in Selkirk.)
'The key to Rob’s skill lies in his distinctive compositions and ability to turn seemingly ordinary subjects into scenes of wonder,' writes Art Amatoria's Caroline Hay. 'In his hands Edinburgh becomes a mass of twisting and turning streets resembling a surreal pop-up map, while a view across the countryside turns fields into blocks of colour peopled by lollipop trees and red houses.'
Hain himself says that what really drives him is a hunger for artistic ideas to feed the mind, and 'that elusive feeling that all artists crave; namely that something of what I am trying to say is appreciated'. Given his current form – accessible, quirky, charming impressions of his adopted Scotland from Hebridean harbours and Aberdeenshire fishing villages to Highland scenes and Old Town closes – his exhibition is likely to be appreciated very widely during the Festival.
'The Weird and Wonderful World of Rob Hain' includes a series of never-before-seen original works, including some new Edinburgh scenes, alongside a selection of his most popular limited edition prints. The exhibition runs from 5–26 August.
[The image above is Hain's Festival City, a limited edition Giclee print.]