Rob Adams has designed theme park attractions around but he harbours a secret…
The candidate for the prestigious Wapping Group is also a highly dedicated and skilled painter of pictures.
“Collectors have been buying my work without much effort on my part in terms of selling...” reveals Rob, who counts “Alton Towers and most of the Legolands” as examples of his commercial work.
It was in Rome though that Rob was able to indulge in his love of art when he painted a magnificent mural on the ceiling of the Hard Rock café in the city.
“I lay on my back for six weeks painting – a real Michelangelo moment with the builders referring to me as maestro,” he recalls.
Rob, who lives in London, has enjoyed a long and varied career. As a scenic artist and illustrator he worked for the photographers David Bailey and Terence Donovan and also making sets for the videos of ‘80s pop sensations Duran Duran and Sting. As a theatre set designer and painter he has worked with the National Youth Ballet at Sadlers Wells and as a modelmaker he worked on the sets of blockbuster films. “I built part of a scale model of Gotham City for Tim Burton’s first Batman. It was all shot on a stage at Shepperton.”
He also decorated many of the floats on the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002.
Three years ago in a moment of madness he gave up an ever expanding career to focus on his painting with a view to exhibiting in more galleries and getting his work known by a wider audience. "Painting pictures became more and more important to me, so the commercial work had to go!"
Image:Cannon St, London, by Rob Adams
