Robin Shillcock

Biography

Robin d'Arcy Shillcock (b. 1953) is an Australian residing in Netherlands. After spending his childhood in India, Australia, Guatemala he came to Netherlands. After graduating in two degrees at the Academy of Fine Arts in Groningen he concentrated his artistic endeavours on birdlife and the Dutch landscape, working primarily as a plein air painter. His fascination for wild birds of prey led him to falconry, giving him a good opportunity to study raptors and their prey, while his home functioned as a sanctuary for injured and orphaned birds. Such experiences gave him a different, but foremost close look at birds.
Between 1980 and 1990 he taught drawing and painting, and worked as an illustrator for various nature magazines. From 1992 tot 1995 he worked as secretary of Artists for Nature Foundation, organizing excursions to threatened nature areas in which artists from many countries contributed.
From 1995 to 2002 he was chairman of exhibitions at the Pictura Fine Arts Society in Groningen, the oldest art society in Netherlands, organizing exhibitions in all art disciplines.
In 1984 he began publishing articles and books on art, on his travels and views on contemporary representational art, and lecturing on these topics in Netherlands and abroad.
Since the early years he has widened his range of subject matter to various genres in which the personal story plays a major role. Drawing in situ, using the brush as a extension of the questing eye, is the foundation of all his work, and has taken him to far-flung rugged areas as Svalbard (painting polar bears) and New Zealand’s Banks Peninsula (drawing fairy and yellow-eyed penguins).
He operates internationally as artist, writer and independent curator of exhibitions.
His work is included in private, public and corporate collections in eight countries, while his books have appeared in five languages.
In Netherlands he is counted among the "Northern Realists". He is a member of the Ducth Society of Marine Painters.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Realisten 2009 — Exhibition catalogue Museum Møhlmann,
Dieren, Spiegel voor de ziel — catalogue KarmelKlooster, Drachten NL 2009
Birds in Art 2008 — catalogue Woodson Art Museum , Wausua USA
Realisten 2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007 — Museum Møhlmann NL
Realisten 2002 & 2003 — van Soeren & Co, Amsterdam
Dear Animals. Contemporary Animal Painting — Museum Møhlmann 2006
Het Laaglandschap. Het hedendaagse Nederlandse landschap — Museum Møhlmann 2006
De Collectie Compleet — Museum Møhlmann 2006
Jäger auf schnellen Schwingen — Deutschen Falkenorden, Germany 2006
De Hooghe Kamer Jubileumtentoonstelling 2004-2005— De Hooghe Kamer, Hoogeveen NL 2005
La Brière. Artistes en escapade (Coiffard, Nantes France 2002)
Lokroep van de Zee — W. van Boven, P. de Rycke (Doelenpers, Alkmaar NL 2004)
14 Noordelijke Landschapschilders. Woudbloem in Beeld— Gemeente Slochteren NL 2004
Texel in Schoonheid Verbeeld (Coeghe, Texel NL 2002)
Modern Wildlife Painting — N. Hammond (Pica Press UK 1998)
Natural Wonders. John & Alice Woodson Forester Miniature Collection — Woodson Art Museum, Wausau USA 1993
Birds in Art 1990 - 2000, 1986 — cat. Woodson Art Museum , Wausau USA
Animals. The Artist’s View – cat. Woodson Art Museum, Wausua USA
Art & Nature (Delachaux & Niestlé, Lausanne 1997)
D’Après Nature – catalogue Municipal Art Gallery, Luxembourg 1989


FILMS
Værøy Schetsboek. A documentary by Jan Fabel, 1993 (28 minutes)