Artist Robert Logsdon was born in 1948 in rural Shelbyville, Kentucky.
Even in childhood he was inspired and intrigued by the beauty in, and mystery of, nature.
The natural world was everywhere around him and he spent every possible moment in it.
Although his family moved to the largest city in Kentucky, Louisville, when he was two,
he craved and took every opportunity to be on his grandparents' farms in southern Indiana
and Kentucky. There he would hike, camp and explore the woodlands that many Native American
Tribes had explored and that John J. Audubon found so fascinating and full of wildlife.
As Robert grew he felt a oneness with nature and a kinship with the Native American soul.
Robert experienced the beauty of nature as a mysterious doorway inviting entrance into
another world. Beyond this doorway…through this threshold lay what he describes as
"nature's creative process" and the "Divine Source of Creation". A never-ending source
of fascination, opportunity for observation and place of peace, this world of nature
compelled Robert toward an artist's life of exploration into, and expression of, this world.
Robert studied art in junior high and high school and pursued its ever illusive and always
intriguing call. He appreciated all of it's forms; visual, musical, poetic, dramatic and
literary. As a teenager he discovered poetry and was moved by the words of Wordsworth,
Shelly, Keats, Emerson and Thoreau as these writers explored and expressed their feelings
about nature and their relationship to it. Robert entered the Cincinnati Art Academy
in 1966 where he was able to focus completely on developing as a visual artist. He followed
the curriculum of the Academy and studied everything from drawing to 2 and 3- dimensional
design to composition to sculpture and painting. While he felt an affinity to three
dimensional work he found his love of color prevailed and focused on painting. Still inspired
by literature he discovered Kahlil Gibran and in his post-graduate year was introduced to
the work of Rudolf Steiner, an introduction that would change his life and his understanding
of "art" and color. In Steiner's work Robert found a synthesis of all that held meaning in
his life; art, science, religion - a harmony of thinking, feeling and willing to use Steiner's
terms for the activity of the head, heart, and limbs.
To experience this harmony in action - in a total community, Robert moved to Copake, NY and
worked with young adults in need of special care in one of the Steiner inspired international
Camphill Village Communities. From there he went on to study art and education as inspired
by Anthroposophy - the teachings of Rudolf Stiener - at Emerson College in England. While in
Europe he worked one summer in Switzerland with Fritz Fuchs learning lasur (lazure) painting.
(Mr. Logsdon subsequently helped pioneer this method of coloring architectural spaces with
layers of transparent or translucent color.)
With his new wife, he returned from his studies and apprenticeship in Europe to hold the
position of artist in residence at The Rudolf Steiner Institute of the Great Lakes Area in
Ann Arbor, Michigan. He held that position for four years. It was here that he began his
business "ColorSpace" and formed a team to do lazure painting. It was from this initiative
that this work began spreading across America. While in Michigan his family grew to include
two children, Gabrielle and Jacob and with his wife and new family he moved to Harlemville, NY,
an Anthroposophic community near the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts.
While in Harlemville Robert pursued not only his painting but began to work with stained
glass, which took him in 1980 to the town of Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He still
resides in the Berkshire Mountains, now in Lee, Massachusetts. Here ColorSpace thrived and
the interest in lazure, (a new term for lasur coined by Robert for American usage) the main
thrust of his interest, enabled him to create beautifully colored architectural spaces as
well as create murals and canvases. His love for the totally harmonized environment
- integrating art and life - led to an expansion of his work into the design and execution
of furniture, primarily beds and to hiring other artists for ColorSpace. While the expansion
was rewarding, Robert found it took him away from his primary love of painting and he now
focuses on color painting on walls, canvases and paper utilizing watercolor, acrylic, oils,
pastels, and natural organic beeswax/casein. He travels throughout the country to execute this
work and also teaches workshops on color and lazure painting.
Commissions for lazure and murals include schools, residences, medical centers,
physician's offices, therapeutic facilities, auditoriums, business offices and workspaces.
A partial list of where these can be seen may be obtained by contacting Robert.
Examples of his work can be seen here and at
www.artmecca.com.
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