Bob grew up in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, where he graduated from the Art Center College of Design with a degree in Industrial Design. He began his career as an automobile designer for the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan and later moved to the Pacific Northwest, taking a position as a design consultant to the Boeing company. He traveled extensively for Boeing developing color schemes for the worlds’ airlines and designing executive interiors for heads of state.  

 
Alongside his professional design career, Bob has pursued a lifelong interest in painting, photography and the theater. He designed sets for the Issaquah Village Theater productions of South Pacific, King and I and Peter Pan. His current paintings are inspired by his world travels and the northwest landscapes he encounters on hiking and backpacking trips. 

“In my creative work today, I tap into a lifetime of drawing experience and consider this to be my strength as a painter. I enjoy painting in a representational style using strong brushwork and color to create a selective impression of the subject before me. I see painting as a form of visual poetry expressing what cannot be conveyed in words alone. For me, the joy in painting comes when the struggles with drawing, design, value and color are finally subordinated to self expression and all my energy goes into making an eloquent emotional statement.” 

– Robert Welsh