Robert Pittam went to art school as a mature student, and studied Illustration at Swindon and Kingston on Thames. He has lived in St Ives and Zennor for several years and has been exhibiting work there and on Tresco in the Isles of Scilly for around 5 years. Pittam has been addicted to Cornwall since childhood holidays there. As well as the landscape, the ocean, and surfing – brilliant summer days on the beach seem to have triggered a lifelong fascination with the subtle emotional power of light and shadow. Greatly influenced by the work of Vermeer and Edward Hopper, Pittam is always looking for a certain quality of stillness in his pictures. His still-lifes often include fishes and he believes that they are amongst the most interesting subjects in nature to study in paint. Possessing colour, pattern, reflectivity, perfectly evolved streamlined shapes and a three dimensional form to ‘sculpt’ in light and shade – they might also be seen as metaphors for sea itself.