Original Album Cover Art
The Artist
Introducing Rob…
CoverVersions is the culmination of Rob’s lifelong interest in Art, Music, Films and Sport.
Rob wanted to go into album cover design having grown up in an era where the release of a new “album” was one of life’s most important events. Rob (and most of his friends) waited in anticipation to see the album artwork just as much as listen to the music! Most time that patience was rewarded with some fantastic album covers especially those of the 70’s rock band like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, ELO, Deep Purple, Rainbow etc. and even the more mainstream musicians and bands brought out some great album covers. Jean Michelle Jarre’s “Oxygene” was a particular catalyst for his inspiration.
Rob’s art influences include Salvador Dali, Alphonse Mucha, Pre-Raphealite’s such a JW Waterhouse, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Sir John Everett Millais. More contemporary favourites include Fabian Perez, Douglass Hoffman and Rob Hefferan. Rob also specialises in contemporary figurative art and photography.
Rob’s artistic inclination has never been far away from him, but having grown up in an era of mass unemployment, parental influences meant studying for a “proper” job. So to get past his caring father he opted for cartography… that’s maps to you and me, it’s also Geography combined with Art! This lead to a successful career in the Oil Industry where moved on from Cartography into IT Service Management working for the Major players such as BP Exploration, ExxonMobil (Esso), ENI Agip, Royal Dutch Shell/BG-Group and a few minor ones too, LASMO and EnCana. He has also worked for Deloitte TTL, UCL,Solvay AS and TeliaSonera.
Art was never far away though and he continued to produce personal pieces for himself, friends, family and some huge party banners. Having designed one album cover whilst at school, his lifelong friend Russ Dennett a rock musician and former member of The Human League asked him to design an album cover for his own offshoot band Deep Down Crazy’s album titled “A Swim in the Ocean” (get a copy it’s ace). A few years later (quite a few in fact!) it was Russ who inspired this venture into giant album artwork when he asked Rob to produce three paintings of giant album covers for his bar “JD’s” near Sheffield. A painting of Madonna’s “True Blue” was the first in that series – now he plans to paint the album covers from his entire vinyl collection.
The Story
Rob’s artistic inclination has never been far away from him, but having grown up in an era of mass unemployment, parental influences meant studying for a “proper” job. So to get past his caring father he opted for cartography…that’s maps to you and me, it’s also Geography combined with Art! This lead to a successful career in the Oil Industry where moved on from Cartography into IT Service Management working for the Major players such as BP Exploration, ExxonMobil (Esso), ENI Agip, Royal Dutch Shell/BG-Group and a few minor ones too, LASMO and EnCana.
Art was never far away though and he continued to produce personal pieces for himself, friends, family and some huge party banners. Having designed one album cover whilst at school, his lifelong friend Russ Dennett a rock musician and former member of The Human League asked him to design an album cover for his own offshoot band Deep Down Crazy’s album titled “A Swim in the Ocean” (get a copy it’s ace). A few years later (quite a few in fact!) it was Russ who inspired this venture into giant album artwork when he asked Rob to produce three paintings of giant album covers for his bar “JD’s” near Sheffield. A painting of Madonna’s “True Blue” was the first in that series – now he plans to paint the album covers from his entire vinyl collection.
Exhibitions
Shropshire VAN
Rob is a member of Shropshire VAN, that is Shropshire Visual Art Network.
As the name suggests, VAN is a Network Organisation, it is a Charitable Trust which was founded in 1999.
VAN is based in Shrewsbury, raising the Visual Art profile in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin. It give local artists the chance to exhibit their work and raise their profile. At some point in the near future Rob will exhibit at VAN. Look out for the dates which will be posted here.
Upcoming Projects
Latest News
The UK’s most prolific artist?
Did you know that I am probably the UK's most prolific artist? a big claim to fame huh? In my placement year I worked at the Department of Trade and Industry, Millbank Tower. My role was as Cartographic Draughtsman. One of my tasks was to create a set of standardised...