Robert Knudson has been painting the western landscape since 1963. His work is well known and loved throughout the west. He is noted for his innovative use of color and light, working in a variety of mediums including oils, acrylic, watercolor, and pastel. Love of painting and love of the west is Robert’s strong motivation for creating wondrous works of art. From the deserts of Arizona, to the mountains of Wyoming, his art expresses the clean grandeur and validity of Nature apart from Man’s influence.

Knudson’s approach to painting is representational, and often interpretive. "A painting should reveal the distillation of something in the spirit of the artist," he says, "Not just what I see, but what I feel about what I see. Not just to report in an artistic way, but to interpret creatively what most moves me about a moment and place in time." Robert’s talent is well portrayed in his quality of light. Light defines drama and contrast in his paintings. Knudson states, "To me it parallels life, highlights many thoughts about principles of change, survival, eternality. Light sets the mood, the dynamic to any moment on the landscape and suggests a grand theme."

Robert Knudson is a native of Minnesota, graduating from Minneapolis Art Institute in 1950. He moved to Arizona in 1957, inspired by the expansive Southwest landscape. In the presence of Knudson’s work, I am able to see the layers of color to build up to a piece with depth and vivacity. The segments of landscape captured often draws the viewer into his piece and gives the "wow" effect. Robert is capturing the single moment when light, shadow, and pattern of landscape is at a peaceful yet monumental moment. The late afternoon or early morning light of landscape softly highlights the depth and quietness that impacts and conveys the timeless quality of the earth.