ROBERT HAILS
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BIOGRAPHY
Robert Hails works mostly on zinc plates to produce elegant and sometimes whimsical etchings. He loves to experiment with aquatint, rolled colour, wax pencil and is always looking for the ‘happy accident’. He pays attention to great detail, seeks patience and encourages his workshop students to take risks and to see where the journey of creating an etching may take them.
Apart from traditional etching Robert also ventures into monotypes. This is where his work becomes more colourful and sometimes quite abstract in form. Here Robert gets his inspiration from short road trips in Victoria or other travels interstate.
As well as participating in the Visual Arts world Robert has been involved in Performing Arts education at a tertiary level for more than forty years and as a consequence most of his works on paper respond to the characters, design, text and mystery of the theatre stage.
CONNECTION TO BALDESSIN STUDIO
My association with Baldessin spans more than forty-five years.
As a student at Eltham High School in the early 1970s, Myself and my two younger brothers Doug and Don helped Tess and George Baldessin build the bluestone studio in St Andrews.
In the early 2000s I was one of the founding members of the Baldessin Press and Studio incorporation. My hands-on contribution to the Baldessin Press includes teaching traditional etching and facilitating workshops. - Robert Hails
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
Near Leach Street
This was my very first work produced from a zinc plate. The image was inspired by an early childhood memory of a horse-drawn Gypsy caravan parked at the end of our street in Briar Hill.
Waiting to Dance
This was my first ambitious attempt to roll colour over the plate after it had been inked up before printing. This was taken from a series of life-drawing exercises that remained hidden in a drawer for over twenty years.
From a Deck Chair
This is what I consider to be a true example of how my education and teaching in the theatre has influenced a lot of my artwork.
