RObert Bliss

Member since 1991

Robert Bliss is a self-taught sculptor, an art that began in his childhood and continues to this day. Many inspirational conversations with Walker Hancock, Jeff Weaver, Chris Williams, Susan Guest McPhail, Bruce Turner, Michael Stoffa and Bob Benham rounded out his art education. He was inducted into the Rockport Art Association in 1991 as an artist member and taught sculpture at RAA. He earned an artist membership at the North Shore Arts Association and was a member from 1993 to 2018.

As a member of the Rockport Art Association, he has won several awards -- Ivan N. Kamalic Memorial Awards for Excellence in Sculpture for his “Mug Up” and for his Bearskin Neck Bear. He was awarded the Martha Moore Memorial Award for his sculpture entitled “Nintendo”, a study of his son playing the game on his computer. He also did a piece using his son as the model for a “high-action skateboarder. “His use of a very traditional material to express a most contemporary activity is a wonderful touch“, Elisabeth Clark, North Shore Magazine. He received the Richard Recchia Memorial Award for excellence in sculpture for a piece entitled “Sunning”, and his three-dimensional piece, a Great Blue Heron ready to strike, received the Jean Tamburine Memorial Award for Excellence in Sculpture.

Robert is constantly creating new subjects such as his sculpture relief honoring the World War II all-black fighter squadron known as the Tuskegee Airmen which is on display at the Tuskegee University Archives in Tuskegee, Alabama. Also on display at the Franklin Park Zoo’s Tropical Forest building is his bronze Gorilla portrait. His “Going Aloft”, a fisherman climbing the rigging, is on display at Seacoast Nursing and Rehabilitation, Gloucester, MA. He was commissioned to make a bas-relief celebrating a company’s 50th anniversary and has created two memorial reliefs of dear friends.

Several years ago, inspired by the ocean and its shore, Robert decided to make decorative tiles as a satisfying way to capture nature. He sculpts the original work in clay, makes a mold, pours slip (liquid clay) into the mold, fires the piece, glazes and then fires again. Customer projects have included 20 horseshoe crab tiles in porcelain for a pool, 14 seahorse tiles for a kitchen renovation, and a three-panel striped bass framed with glass tiles for installation in a kitchen backsplash.

Bliss Studios is now offering sculpture for the garden which includes turtles, ducks, frogs, toads, a snail, striped bass, and fish on metal rods to “swim” in your garden. Robert has now ventured into whimsy creating a Peckin’ Pete family series which includes Peckin’ Pete, Priscilla, Pete, Jr., and Patsy.

All images ©Robert Bliss