The Bigger Picture

Thought it was time to tell you a little bit about us and the background to West Gallery.


I’m Rob Walker and I set the gallery up in 2010 with my wife Belinda. I grew up on a farm in rural Northamptonshire and have been a graphic designer and illustrator for over 25 years. I studied fine art and graphic design at Northampton College of Art and after working for several design agencies I started my own design business in 1987 with a small team of six, including Belinda. 


As award winning designers we produced a variety of work for companies from Avon Cosmetics to Barclaycard and Mercedes to Travis Perkins and many more household names and government departments. A big sports fan and someone that has played football, rugby and cricket at various levels I also had the privilege to design work for many professional sports teams, great fun and not really like work!


We moved to North Devon a few years ago as a lifestyle change and bought an old dairy farm which we have been converting into a house and the gallery next door with the aim to renew my passion for art and to get hands-on with a paintbrush and paint... rather than designing on a computer! Having said that, finding time to paint has been the hardest thing, what with building work, managing websites and administering and running the gallery seven days a week, not to mention dealing with other artists!


When I do get time to paint, I like to paint people and animals, especially local farming characters which takes me back to my days as a child wandering round the local cattle market on a Saturday morning. I prefer to paint either in oils or watercolours, although I will occasionally venture into other media, and I have recently produced a series of watercolour sketches from Woolsery Show. 

Many of the other artists in the gallery get their inspiration from the beautiful Devon and Cornwall landscape, from coastal scenes to Dartmoor landscapes, such as Saul Cathcart, David W Young and Tony Williams. Generally, these artists like to paint big and there seems to be a trend at the moment for bigger pictures, statement pieces that make an impact, and I for one am an advocate of the bigger picture.


This is borne out by the recent exhibition at the Royal Academy by David Hockney RA entitled “A Bigger Picture” which not only refers to the scale of the works but how people observe artwork. Worth a look.


Whatever your preferred style, big or small, contemporary or traditional, abstract or realist it’s worth opening your mind to ‘the bigger picture’. Art is for everyone, it brings a little bit of pleasure in a non-stop hectic world. Worth every penny!