Rob Pepper Illustrator

Welcome to a new Tea for Joy feature, 'Beautifully British.' This week's subject is the London-based illustrator Rob Pepper. I first discovered his work as it is the cover artwork on Iain Archer's CD 'To the Pine Roots.' In fact, even though I am a huge fan of Iain Archer, I probably bought the CD because of its cover.


Rob uses a wide range of media in his work. He uses drawing to capture an essence of place, makes large scale minimal portraits on canvas and creates substantial-sized public art involving the local community. He exhibits regularly in the UK and USA and is a senior tutor at the Art Academy, London. He runs workshops on developing the creative impulse with his collaborative partner Aimie Littler.

He kindly answered a few questions for me:

Describe your work:
My work ranges from intimate drawings to large scale public artworks. The drawings are predominately pen and ink on paper, the paintings oil and gold leaf on canvas and the completed pubic artworks include a 40 panel church ceiling and an 80ft design for a bridge parapet as part of the Kings Cross redevelopment. At the basis of everything is a yearning to draw which I do everyday and have done so for the past 4 years.

What inspires you?

Landscapes, especially London between St Paul's & Tate Modern, and the English countryside, particularly the Marshwood Vale in Dorset.

Artists & Artwork, including Duchamp's Nude Descending the Staircase and the fact he gave up art to play chess.

And this year; birds, middle England and the connection between art and spirituality.

How would you describe a perfect day?
All days are perfect if you want them to be but I think there are some raw ingredients that help. They include a loved one, a good pen and some paper, clean air, warmth on my skin, a trip to a market to buy some food, a banjo, a place to get away from everyone and quite possibly a margarita.

As you may know, I really like birds, especially swallows, hence the illustrations above are slightly skewed to this subject (and some of them make up the aforementioned album cover.) But Rob has a wide range of subjects, more of which you can see at his website. He also has a great blog, which documents his daily drawing, aptly named the Daily Drawing Diary.

At the minute his prints aren't available to buy online, but he does have some for sale, and you can email him for more information.

For budding artists out there, he is also leading a two week trip to Kerala in India in February next year with the Responsible Tourism Award winning company The Blue Yonder. The group will participate in art workshops alongside those of local Indian artists, offset their carbon by physically planting saplings in a local reforestation project, go on a spice tour and learn local cooking. Sounds like an amazing trip.

Thanks, Rob!