Robert’s last sketchbook from 1991 features small nature studies. The flowers are from his mother Isabel’s garden. Robert was too ill to attempt more complex subjects, yet these flower and leaf images parallel the vulnerability of Robert’s own condition at this time. Most of these late nature drawings are done in pen and ink, though large dark areas were filled in with a brush. Nature imagery, simplified for its graphic impact, often takes on a semi-abstract character. The transitions from darkness to light can be stark or can involve a series of ever thinning lines or marks that bring a sense of energy and vibration to the sketch.