Keyword: water
![Native Tourist thumb](https://robertpopearchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/NativeTourist2-235x235.jpg)
Native Tourist
These are two of three illustrations Robert made for a story, Brian’s Dilemma, published in Canadian Forum. The story involved an unemployed fisherman, still a young man, who has moved away in search of work. When he returns home to
![Lifeline (Intravenous solution and ocean) thumb](https://robertpopearchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/4.Intravenous-Solution-and-Ocean-235x235.jpg)
Lifeline (Intravenous solution and ocean)
In a sketchbook, Robert notes: “Blood is a simultaneous symbol of birth, life and death. Water operates the same way; a life-giving substance that one can drown in.” Robert often used parallels and contrasts in his work. Here he contrasts an apparatus of modern
![Hospital Room and Ocean thumb](https://robertpopearchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/FeetWindowWater1004-copy-2-235x188.jpg)
Hospital Room and Ocean
Robert draws his own feet on a hospital bed and a window in a bare room opening to a world outside that is inaccessible to him, yet a source of dream and hope. This drawing, made in a downtown Toronto hospital, pictures
![Ocean Picnic thumb](https://robertpopearchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Ocean-Picnic-235x177.jpg)
Ocean Picnic
This image, showing a father and son eating food from a plate, sitting on a rock surrounded by water as far as the eye can see, was created during the “Illness & Healing” project, but has no obvious connection to
![Surf thumb](https://robertpopearchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/3.Surf_-235x178.jpg)
Surf
An enormous wave crashes between a couple. The water affirms their sense of exhilaration, passion, adventure. The painting is from a series based on Elizabeth Smart’s experimental novel, By Grand Central Station I Sat down and Wept. Here is a sample
![Wharf thumb](https://robertpopearchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/WharfRet-235x175.jpg)
Wharf
Robert’s interest in the mythology of pop culture often focused on cars. The Accident series takes, as a point of departure, the breakdown of cars and the subsequent unraveling of a sense of order and certainty. This reflected feelings Robert
![Plunge thumb](https://robertpopearchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Plunge-copy-235x235.jpg)
Plunge
In his summary of Elizabeth Smart’s novel, Robert notes that Part 3 contains a “lyrical outpouring of happiness, much water imagery.” In Plunge, Robert captures the freedom and joyous abandon of running near the ocean. In the distance can be seen the
![River thumb](https://robertpopearchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/5.River_-235x180.jpg)
River
Robert took photos at a Macrobiotic group picnic and the figures in the river suggested a return to health through harmony with nature and community. We see two stages of immersion, as the man treds water, half in and half
![Harbour thumb](https://robertpopearchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/HarbourIa-235x235.jpg)
Harbour
This is the second version of Harbour, following dozens of studies. This watercolour was one of the artist’s first images to locate figures in a landscape charged with symbolic intentions. The ocean generates abstract patterns that tantalizingly suggest shapes and images, as if
![Woman with Suitcase thumb](https://robertpopearchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/5.SuitcaseCliffJPG-235x235.jpg)
Woman with Suitcase
This is the first image in Robert’s painting cycle detailing an obsessive love triangle. The heroine of the story, a 23-year-old Canadian, arrives in Monterey and marvels at the cliffs overlooking the ocean. She feels these cliffs are a suitable symbol