Canadian artist Robert Bateman, born and schooled in Toronto, filled his youthful days with a myriad of outdoor experiences involving nature. He seized every opportunity to broaden his knowledge. The royal Ontario Museum was like his second home. In his teens and early twenties, Bateman’s thirst for learning led him into a wide variety of fascinating natural history experiences and world travel, always in association with natural history scientists who were important influences in formulating his ideas.
  From boyhood to University days, sketchbooks were a inseparable part of his explorations and travel. He majored in geography and studied art at the University of Toronto, received his teaching certificate, and in Ontario taught both geography and art. It was during a two-year teaching stint in Africa that he began his serious African wildlife painting.

  He resides in Ontario, and with the exception of some lecturing and serving on conservation and art boards, Robert Bateman paints full time. He travels extensively on field trips. First-hand observation, he feels is the most important tool.

  The focus on environment is the essence of Bateman’s paintings. From the first, his drawing and paintings were direct from nature and realistic in style. Later, he worked into contemporary styles such as Cubism and Abstract Expressionism; but he has always worked in the field using the natural world as his subject. He then returned to realism but with a new approach to composition and concept, deciding this was the style in which he could best express his feeling for nature. His works have been exhibited worldwide and are in collections on four continents.