Robert Connell was born in Portland, Oregon and raised in Seattle, Washington. He received a BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Washington and studied at the American Center for Art and Artists in Paris. For decades he has been drawn back, again and again, to the same imperative: go outside and look more closely.

Hidden Gems: A Day with Rob Connell welcomes summer with a celebration of Connell’s simple imperative. Connell is known for his plein-air paintings that utilize sumi ink and gouache on paper. His works are made on location, in the open air, where the light is real and the scene is unrehearsed.  These are not grand destinations; they are the kinds of places you pass on a bike ride, a long walk, a detour taken without a plan. His work is influenced by both Asian painting techniques and newspaper printing practices, leading to a unique method. The ink is applied on-site, then gouache is rolled on with a printmaker's brayer back in the studio. The result lives somewhere between document and dream. His works focus on the Northwest landscape, negative and positive space, and the impact of memory and personal experience on a place. Grounded in observation, but luminous with interpretation, each piece carries the feeling of a moment truly inhabited.

If we let it, summer adventure offers revelation waiting inside the mundane. The spectacular is not always at the summit. Sometimes it's a pink building catching the light just right and the private thrill of being the one who stopped to see it.