Robert Pope Archive

A flower wraps itself around a guitar and appears to play the instrument, using its leaves to strum the vibrating strings. The flower is gigantic in proportion to the guitar and is drawn in a strange tubular style with a dark

Robert first created the image of a silhouetted man with bars superimposed for a book illustration on prison ministry. The bars are both a physical obstacle and part of the man’s body, something tangible, and something internal like an imaginary prison inside himself. Robert created

Two kind and supportive nurses assist an emaciated patient as he tests his strength, walking down a hospital corridor. This is Robert’s graphic version of the large painting, New Steps, treated entirely in black and white with no half-tones. A second graphic version

The wolf  is encased in a field of energy. His sudden call disrupts the rippling waves around him with a sharp starburst wedge. Is he sounding an alarm or simply announcing his presence in the universe? The wolf’s body is depicted as a

Robert frequently created variations of the same image, making small changes, often using different media. He challenged himself to create a woodcut version of his watercolour painting, River, replacing its vibrant blues and greens with pure black and white tones. The

A pair of hands press against–what? The body of another person? Or a field of energy that bends and springs with the pressure applied to it? This is Robert’s first woodcut. He was advised in his materials by fellow artist Glenn MacKinnon, a specialist

Robert portrays the ocean or the oceanside locale of Nova Scotia as a place that is inherently dramatic. The gently gathered folds of the stage curtain amusingly echo the repeating waves. There is a collision of nature and artifice in this drawing that is

An elderly man in a wheelchair stares off into space while his daughter stands guard. She looks stiff and unrecognizable, with most of her body in shadow and her features treated like a mask hiding any trace of emotion. The man in

Robert created two illustrations to accompany the short story, “Planning a Future,” by Aritha van Herk. They were published in the winter issue of Canadian Forum, 1990. The story is about a clever but fretful young woman on vacation on Vancouver

This illustration was made for the cover of a book. The elongated figure is unusual, and provides a sense of extra height that ties in with the title “Giant Agony.” The bent and sorrowful man refers to Adam from Massacio’s Expulsion from Eden. This