Electric Lady
An Original Piece by Rob Birchfield
Acrylic on Panel
1 of 1
About the Artist
Born and raised in Brooklyn NY, Rob was captivated at a young age by the bright, colorful artwork of Basil Gogos that he saw on the covers of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine on magazine racks all over New York City. On those covers and in those pages began a lifelong passion for both horror movies and art.
As a kid he discovered that the Society of Illustrators gallery was close to his house and it became a place of magic and discovery for him. He was in absolute awe of the artwork he saw lining the walls. Iconic artists from Maxfield Parrish to Bob Peak and even contemporary greats like Drew Struzan.
He was hooked and vowed that he would someday be able to paint and draw like that.
Rob has always been naturally curious about art processes and materials. At 11 years old he discovered graphite drawing. At 13 it was watercolor painting, copying the detailed and colorful art on his Mom’s Celestial Seasoning’s tea boxes. At 16 he taught himself how to airbrush and also started getting into computers and Photoshop. At 24 oil painting became his new passion. In 2008 he got his first Wacom tablet and started painting digitally.
A chance meeting with tattoo artist Joe T. Izzo in 2001 led to a 4 year apprenticeship. After having a variety of art related jobs ranging from assistant art director at the prestigious DDB Needham agency on Madison Ave. Where he vowed to never work a corporate job ever again, to mural painter to art supply retailer, tattooing seemed to be the one place where Rob could thrive as an artist, make a decent living and still feel comfortable to be himself. He found kinship and camaraderie in the tattooing world as an artist, surrounded by other hungry and hardworking artists. As demanding a career as tattooing is, He still painted and drew for himself whenever he had the time. Most nights he would go home from the shop and stay up late painting the subjects he was most passionate about…horror movies and classic monsters. Rob had no plans for his monster art beyond sharpening his skills and having some fun. A chance meeting with a writer for horrornews.net at the tattoo shop where he worked encouraged Rob to start posting his horror art on social media. In 2017 he took the big leap and took a step away from tattooing to paint full time.
Rob mostly works in acrylics, charcoal or digital painting, switching things up as the job or his mood dictates. His work favors bold, saturated color, unique perspectives and can go from highly detailed to loose and expressive, often within the same painting.
Today Rob lives and works in Temecula California with his wife Vanessa and a cat named Puppy.