Rougette Gallery

                  Bob Conrad is a goldsmith with a 25 year background as owner and designer of a successful retail jewelry business in Newburyport, Massachusetts.   Entirely self taught, he worked primarily with precious metals and gemstones making jewelry of his own designs.  In addition to gold and platinum, he also worked with other metals, painted, carved in wood and clay, and had a background making stained glass windows.  
       

              When he and his partner Jan McCoy retired to Maine in 2003, he was drawn to working with the beautiful native stones found in the coastal area.  He began carving them and also using them in sculptures with metal he forges.  Occasionally the muses lead him to interesting pieces of scrap metal which become serious or whimsical found metal sculptures, oftentimes both.   He takes delight in creating art out of material that has been discarded.   His works are known for their raw, clever elements.  They are recognizable forms and deceptively simple in their construction, but thoughtfully and carefully executed.

                Bob doesn't think of himself as an "artist" because of his lack of formal education but acknowledges -- as the impressive  range of his creative output is referenced -- that he has an "artistic temperament": a desire to satisfy his own imagination,  a belief in the sustaining value of creativity and art,  understanding the importance of pleasing himself no matter what, being playful with nature, and to take his art work  and natural materials seriously.