Robyn RenéeDrake
Oil paintings of myth and threshold. Figures, animals and the sea, held to a harmonic geometry and transmuted into a private liturgy.
View the work →Antimony, a cycle in nine
Nine square canvases hung in fixed sequence, each consecrated by its own incantation. Paintings I–IV are complete. The cycle is offered to galleries and institutions as a single exhibition.
Exhibition details →Untamed and Indomitable
Solo exhibition, Emerald Art Center, Springfield, Oregon, September 2025. Curated by Don Hudgins, with a catalog and an interview by Robert Canaga.
Selected works
Dimensions are height × width. High-resolution images and provenance for any work are sent on request.
The first four of nine canvases, hung in this order. The cycle →
Compressed charcoal.
Antimony
The alchemists called antimony the grey wolf of metals: fed impure gold, it devoured the dross and left the gold refined. The cycle takes that operation as its rite.
- Works
- Nine paintings in fixed sequence
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Each
- 36 × 36 in. (91.4 × 91.4 cm)
- Status
- I–IV complete · V–IX in the studio
- Wall
- About 43 linear ft (13.1 m), hung in one line at 24 in. intervals
- Year
- 2025–
- Text
- Each canvas carries its own incantation
Blessed be the wing that breaks mid-flight.
Blessed be the falling one
who does not close her eyes.
Blessed be the pulse without a name.
Blessed be the one who carries
that which never could remain.
Blessed be the flame.
Blessed be the one who dances
without asking to be saved.
Blessed be the thread of blood and light.
Blessed be the one who grieves
the twilight of her sacred right.
Antimony I–IV, proposed installation. Rupture on the left wall, Untethered and Quickening on the far wall, Soul Kiss on the right. Digital rendering.
Each painting is consecrated by an incantation, every line of it opening with the words Blessed be. Read in order along the wall, the nine incantations form a single litany.
Blessed be the flame.
Blessed be the one who dances
without asking to be saved.
Blessed be the wing that breaks mid-flight.
Blessed be the falling one
who does not close her eyes.
Blessed be the pulse without a name.
Blessed be the one who carries
that which never could remain.
Blessed be the thread of blood and light.
Blessed be the one who grieves
the twilight of her sacred right.
Antimony V–IX are in the studio and will join the wall in sequence.
Antimony is offered to galleries and institutions as a complete cycle, shown in its fixed order. A proposal packet with images, the full text of the incantations, an installation plan and the artist's CV is sent on request.
Request the proposal →The painting as an alchemical act
Robyn Renée Drake paints in oil from a studio on the coast at Half Moon Bay, California.
Her subjects are figures, animals and the sea, held as a symbolic language drawn from mythology, astrology and a lifetime among horses. Her horses wear no tack and carry no sign of era or culture; what remains is the animal as an icon of endurance and power. Her ravens are messengers between seen and unseen worlds. Her human figures are quieter and more inward, set in dreamlike rooms where every object can be read. Her seascapes turn outward, to forces no single life controls.
Each composition is built on a harmonic armature of the rectangle, a Pythagorean scaffold laid down before the first figure is drawn. On that structure she excavates the image slowly, in the tradition of the painted surface. The work begins in grief, rupture or memory and leaves the studio transmuted.
Drake was raised on a cattle and horse farm in Iowa. She took a double BA in studio art and art history at Drake University, continued in graduate painting at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and at Drake, and later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and Stanford.
In 1989 she signed an exclusive contract with De Laurent Fine Art in Chicago's River North, and from 1993 to 1996 she was a member of the Palette & Chisel artist co-op in Chicago. After a long interval away from exhibition she returned to the studio with new force. In 2025 she showed at ArtExpo New York, where Thalia I was selected by juried competition, and opened the solo exhibition Untamed and Indomitable at Emerald Art Center in Oregon. That year she also studied with Edward Povey in Barcelona. In 2026 she returned to New York with Daring (Im)Possibilities at Artifact Projects on the Lower East Side. She has been selected for a residency with Jen Tough Gallery in Santa Fe.
Her work is held in private collections in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Robyn Renée Drake
Lives and works in Half Moon Bay, California. Raised in Iowa.
Education
- 1987BA, Drawing & Painting; BA, Art History. Drake University, Des Moines, IA
- 1987Graduate Painting Program, University of Wisconsin–Madison
- 1988Graduate Painting Program, Drake University
- —Post-graduate study: Art Institute of Chicago; Academy of Art University, San Francisco; Stanford University
- 2025Riven workshop with Edward Povey, Barcelona
Solo exhibitions
- 2025Untamed and Indomitable, Emerald Art Center, Springfield, OR. Curated by Don Hudgins
- 1990–Solo exhibitions, Chicago
Selected group exhibitions & art fairs
- 2026Daring (Im)Possibilities, Artifact Projects, New York. Thalia I
- 2026Primavera, Madrone Fine Arts, Pescadero, CA
- 2026Natural Rhythms, San Francisco Women Artists Gallery, San Francisco
- 2025Mirada on Main, group installation
- 2025ArtExpo New York, Artavita Pavilion. Thalia I selected by juried competition
- 2025Artists Series, Woodside Historic Stable, Woodside, CA
- 2024Juried Spring Show, Academy of Art University, San Francisco. Hector 3 and Hector 5
- 1990–Group exhibitions, Chicago and California
Galleries
- 2024–Madrone Fine Arts, Pescadero, CA
- 2024–Emerald Art Center, Springfield, OR
- 1989De Laurent Fine Art, River North, Chicago. Exclusive contract
Residencies
- 2027Jen Tough Gallery, Santa Fe, NM. Selected
Catalogs & press
- 2027Current Masters, World Wide Art. Forthcoming
- 2025Untamed and Indomitable, exhibition catalog, Emerald Art Center. With an interview by Robert Canaga
- 2025ArtExpo New York exhibition catalog, World Wide Art–Artavita
- 2025Palo Alto Online, feature on the Woodside Historic Stable Artists Series
Teaching
- 2025Alla prima oil workshop, Emerald Art Center, Springfield, OR. Includes the artist's own oil-and-wax emulsion medium
Commissions & scenic painting
- 2026Private commission, Green Flash, oil on canvas, 48 × 48 in.
- 2024Scenic design and painting, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Half Moon Bay Shakespeare
Affiliations
- 2025–San Francisco Women Artists. Member
- 1993–96Palette & Chisel Artist Co-op, Dearborn Street, Chicago. Member
Collections
- —Private collections in the United States, Europe and Asia
Galleries, curators & collectors
Exhibition proposals, the Antimony cycle, availability and loans. A proposal packet and high-resolution images are sent on request.
Available works, private commissions and studio visits by appointment in Half Moon Bay, California.