Robert F. Irwin is one of the best living artists in North Carolina.  For over 50 years he has catalogued the ever-changing landscape from Raleigh to the Crystal Coast.  His broad, confident paint strokes record our environment and architecture in a forthright and unpretentious way.  A student of George Bireline and Joe Cox’s North Carolina State College of Design, Irwin has worn many hats.

“I was a sculptor. I was a museum designer. I was a TV illustrator. I was a carpenter. I was a furniture designer. I was a product designer, a photographer, a painter,” Irwin said over the phone from his home in Beaufort. “It was like I was running up and down a smorgasbord going, ‘Oh, let me try some of this.’”

In Robert F. Irwin’s summer exhibition, he pays homage to his roots as well as the artists and mentors who have influenced him throughout his life.  Many subjects will be familiar to  the viewer in this show.