Robert Carter is a full-time representational painter in oil and oil pastel in the American Impressionist tradition. His art primarily consists of landscapes and seascapes, based on scenes from Cape Cod and throughout New England. His approach to oil painting was developed from extensive self-study and under the tutelage of the late Copley Master Artist William Maloney, O.P.A., whom he considers his principal artistic mentor. He has also studied with the late Don Stone, N.A., Stepelton Kearns, and other prominent working artists.
For his oil paintings, Bob uses a limited palette composed of the primary colors (red, blue, yellow), orange (a convenience color), and white. He uses no tube purples or greens, preferring to mix these from the primaries. His only earth pigments are yellow ochre and burnt sienna. As with the original French Impressionists, he uses no black. Bob is careful to use only those materials and practices that will result in works of maximum longevity. For example, he only uses the most light-fast pigments on primed linen, which he usually stretches or mounts on board himself. Paintings may be created on site (en plein air), from reference photographs, or from memory.
For his oil pastel paintings, Bob uses Sennelier pastels, which were originally developed by that firm at the request of Pablo Picasso in 1947. These are occasionally supplemented with certain hues of other makers' artist-quality pastels. Like his oil pigments, these are completely light-fast. The ground for his oil pastel paintings is Canson Mi Teintes Touch, a heavy-weight sanded paper with a grit surface. All oil pastel paintings are framed under non-reflecting museum glass or acrylic.
Robert Carter is a juried Artist Member of the Cape Cod Art Center, and a juried Associate Member of Oil Painters of America. In addition, he is an Associate member of the American Impressionist Society, an artist member of the Provincetown Art Association, an artist member of the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod, and an artist member of Hull Artists. He is represented by Eastwind Gallery in Orleans MA.