Art Speak
Each month a new featured artist bares his/her soul and shares inspiring, profound and helpful insights into their daily practice, about how they found their own style/voice on their varied paths to becoming professional artists.
In Conversation with Abstract Artist Robert Szot
2021.06.07
New York-based artist Robert Szot is a bit of a hero amongst amateur and professional artists alike, and his beautiful abstract works have won him a well-deserved following in the US, UK and elsewhere. In this interview you will see him as - probably - never before! Listen to Robert chat candidly about everything from his work and love of Edith Piaf to how he would cope on Mars and answering that all-important question for a Texan living in NYC - bagels or BBQ? He's profound, funny and inspiring ... so pour yourself a drink, sit back and enjoy!
Watch the interviewIf a turtle can live for 200 years, I can do 140, right?
Robert Szot
Boy, Catherine! Way to put me on the spot! That’s a really big question!
Robert Szot
The picturesque bit of your brain is going ‘Make it look like this’, and it can make you forget what painting is about, which is movement, expression.
Paul Wadsworth
When you’ve got a white canvas and you’re chucking paint on, it’s very seductive. You’ve got to go past it … just move on because there’s a more amazing painting somewhere to be had.
Paul Wadsworth
It’s about finding that one small thing that you are so passionate about, that little ember that burns so deeply inside of you, and really wrapping every decision you make around that, as much as you can.
Robert Szot
There’s nothing quite like feeling you’re not wasting your time to keep yourself motivated.
Robert Szot
It brings such a lot of joy into your life to feel you’re doing something that has purpose, and that’s worth your time … and that could be anything!
Robert Szot
It’s about not worrying about starting something, making a mark, a colour! It’s simple steps, and learning to control it – controlling the drip!
Maxine Hart
There are fashions that come all the time. And some people get sucked up into that. You’ve got to be careful. Just paint who you are.
Paul Wadsworth
Find something small to wrap your life around.’ Robert Szot
Robert Szot
You’ve got to create failures too. If you don’t fail with stuff, then you’re not going to create the ones you really love.
Paul Wadsworth
I’m interested in how people put paint on the canvas, because that tells me everything I need to know about them.
Paul Wadsworth
When you’re a mum, you’ve often just got an hour/two hours, and that is it, before you go to pick someone up. I was worried I was going to lose my creative juices, but it very much honed my skill.
Maxine Hart
A controlled dribble … I feel I’m that! Yes, I’m a controlled dribble. It’s all about letting things happen, but not too far!
Maxine Hart
It starts to become about who you are, and how to put yourself into the work. That’s the important bit.
Paul Wadsworth
It is a difficult thing to dive that deeply into your own psyche – you’ll find it to be exhilarating, terrifying and rewarding, all at the same time.
Robert Szot
I am going back to that ‘being-at-art-school’ feeling, where I’m trying to get over the feeling of being too precious about something, of keeping going, but not pushing it too far.
Maxine Hart
Painting’s my life, it’s my living. It’s who I am and I like that. I like that.
Paul Wadsworth
I love that painting can transcend distance and time, and I wanted to be a part of that, to talk in that language.
Robert Szot
I thought, maybe I can move to New York and incorporate whatever that magical New York dust … does for me and my work.
Robert Szot
Edith Piaf will live forever and painting will live forever.
Robert Szot
There are enough dark corners in my own life that I find interesting.
Robert Szot
The best artists are the best editors.
Robert Szot
I get to confess everything … through abstraction.
Robert Szot
There’s nothing more interesting than your own voice, than the individual.
Robert Szot
I can eat butter? NASA send the Buttership!
Robert Szot
I'm interested in how people put paint on the canvas, because that tells me everything I need to know about them
Paul Wadsworth
I can work on Mars? I have a studio? That’s okay then.
Robert Szot
It (painting) will never die out. It’s such a great way for an individual to mark their time out and to express themselves, and say “This is what was going on when I was here”.
Robert Szot
Painting takes your life and connects it to the lives of people you don’t know.
Robert Szot
Oh my God, I'm in the Tate and I think I'm going to cry.
Trudy Montgomery
Find something small to wrap your life around, and nurture that small thing as much as you can.
Robert Szot
I don’t start with any great ideas. I just start by chucking paint and colour at the canvas, and have that real playful time.
Paul Wadsworth
If you don’t have the basics, you can’t go off and do something pure abstract.
Paul Wadsworth
Featured Interviews
In Conversation with Maxine Hart
2021.05.04Cornish painter Maxine Hart chats about her work, combining motherhood with a career as an artist, and how surfing, pasties and walking the dog fit into her busy life!
In conversation with Malcom Taylor
2021.03.01Painter Malcolm Taylor talks to Art Speak about his journey from railway designer to full-time painter. His beautiful abstract and figurative work is full of delicious colour, interesting motifs and characterised by a restrained sensitivity to subject and composition.