Collection: Robert Sherrill

Living and working in Southern California, Robert Sherrill draws inspiration from the natural world around him. Painting in watercolor or oil, he captures the interplay of light, form, and color, creating vibrant and evocative works that celebrate the experience of landscape.

Inspired by the Fauvists, Impressionists, and Post-Impressionists, as well as the tradition of Expressionist painting in California, Sherrill has worked across portraiture, still life, and landscape subjects, often recognized for his investigations into the natural and built world through audacious color and textured composition. His work is gestural, reactive, and layered, prompting an emotive response from viewers.

From a young age, Sherill found himself immersed in nature, art, and science. A childhood filled with hiking, camping, exploring, and raising animals with his family on the West Coast continues to inform his early artistic practice. Constantly drawing, painting, and journaling, Sherrill’s study of the natural world around him remains a lifelong passion. His work often nods to the plein air tradition, and the scenes he chooses to capture are ones he also experiences in real time.

An early childhood spent visiting museums with his mother and leaning into an impulse to experiment with color continued on through high school. At Riverside Community College, Sherill began to hone his artistic skills, later accepting a position as a draftsman and artist at an architecture firm. He continued his studies at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. After graduating from Art Center in 1990, Sherill worked as an illustrator, backdrop artist, and art director, completing work for clients such as DreamWorks, Disney, the Wall Street Journal, and the Sundance Film Festival.

Robert has since gained a loyal following of students whom he teaches weekly across both in-person and remote classes. Continuing on as an instructor at ArtCenter, Robert also teaches painting at local colleges, performs demos, juries local competitions, and offers workshops through institutions such as the Huntington Garden and Library. 

Sherrill has participated in group and solo exhibitions throughout Southern California, including shows at the Pasadena Museum of History, Tirage Gallery, Auarun Gallery, and Creative Art Group Gallery, among others. He has taken part in regional shows for three decades, winning numerous awards and publishing two books.