Colin G. Robertson is a Glasgow born Artist/Illustrator, with a professional background in Architecture. Since 2018, Robertson has been based in Belfast Northern Ireland, relocating from Australia’s East Coast where he has lived for a number of years. Aboriginal Art and culture became a great source of inspiration for his work.

Robertson uses drawing as a means of tackling depression and topics surrounding mental health. Colin works in pencil; his complex and uniquely colourful drawings happen freely; he has described the process as both meditative and liberating. Beginning as A4 black on white illustrations, the images are then inverted and up-scaled at which stage colour is applied intuitively, expressing the moment. Colin is colourblind and rejects all ideas conforming to traditional colour-coordination.

Since leaving Australia Colin has produced some 40 unique works that embrace and integrate his experience of life, Buddhist spirituality, experimentation with psychedelic drugs in the 70’s and his extensive travels around the globe, including a significant time spent among spiritual communities in Nepal, Japan and his native Scotland.

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Colin was born in 1955 and one of his earliest memories was the smell of coal dust from the mine where his grandfather worked and a box of crayons that he shared with his cousins. The Ravenscraig Steelmill was the backdrop to his childhood and it provided a fine red dust that would fall on his neighbourhood and provide a unique opportunity to draw on almost any flat surface. Into this mix came the presence of his Uncle Tom who was a draughtsman at a local engineering firm and he provided Colin with the “dog-end” pieces of his drawing pencils. Later, he gave Colin a beginner’s book on Old English calligraphy.

Colin's first year in primary school introduced him to painting at the age of 5. He remembers cheap butcher’s paper taped to the wall in the corridor, and then slapping paint on mercilessly, going through sheet after sheet, happily decorating himself, his clothes, the floor, the walls and some of his classmates. This was when he discovered that he was colourblind and the humiliation caused a deep wound that set him on a course of anxiety around anything to do with colour including conversation, choices, tastes and unfortunately put an end to painting and drawing until adulthood.

Fortunately, he discovered a love and a talent for technical drawing in High School and so began a lifelong love of pencils, pens, set squares, rulers, instruments of all kinds and more importantly, no involvement with paint, colour or humiliation. By 1973, his education was complete, and at the age of 18, he arrived in London. This began a 20-year adventure that took him to art college, architecture school and a 12-year career as an architectural designer. Moving forward…..he still doesn't paint, he's still colourblind but now he can play the ukulele.