Robert Connell was born in Portland, Oregon and raised in Seattle, Washington. He received a BFA in Painting in Drawing from the University of Washington and studied at the American Center for Art and Artists in Paris. He has exhibited extensively in the Pacific Northwest and has artworks in many esteemed collections. Connell is known for his plein-air paintings that utilize sumi ink and gouache on paper. His work is influenced by both Asian painting techniques and newspaper printing practices, which is how he developed his unique technique combining ink painting on site and applying gouache with a printmaker’s brayer in the studio. His works focus on the Northwest landscape, negative and positive space, and the impact of memory and personal experience on a place.