About Robin

Robin Litwin, a Harwich artist and photographer, began her artistic journey as a student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and at Tufts University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Education in 1982.

Following her college experience, Robin taught black and white photography at Tufts and at Marblehead High School. Not long afterwards, her dream job presented itself, and for 25 years Robin delighted in designing the curriculum for and teaching seven different classes in the Art Department of Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School, retiring in 2008.

Enamored with Cape Cod after summering in Chatham all of her life, Robin moved to Harwich in 2012 and picked up a paintbrush. Since then she has worked in a variety of mediums and is currently honing her passion for encaustic painting and photo transfers, deriving a great deal of inspiration from the natural beauty of her Cape Cod home, as well as other New England states, such as Maine.

Robin’s works can be seen at the Local Color Gallery in Chatham, Mass, where her business, Robin’s Nest Art Studio, is located., as well as The Guild of Harwich Artists and in galleries throughout New England. She is an active member of the Visual Artist Collective (VAC) and is a painting instructor at the Creative Arts Center in Chatham where she teaches encaustic painting and The Journal as Art, the latter of which encourages artists who journal to thoroughly enjoy a harmonious blend of writing and art within the pages of a personal journal. Robin also offers individual and group lessons at The Harwich Cultural Center and serves on the board of directors of the Friends of the Harwich Cultural Council, and was recently named a Juried Artist at the Cape Cod Art Center in Barnstable.

Robin’s photographs are regularly published in the Cape Cod Chronicle, and her work has won numerous awards. When not painting or composing photographs, Robin enjoys taking her dogs Rosie and Ryder for walks along the beach or through the woods around the Cape.

Artist Statement

I work in a series – pears, flowers, trees, and more recently, ambiguous figures in space. I have spent my life chronicling ordinary and extraordinary moments through writing and photography, and now painting. For me, it’s about authentically capturing a gesture, the feeling of a place, or making a statement through my personal voice. An encaustic series on my father and the impact of his drinking is an ongoing exploration, echoing the writing and artwork from the personal journals that have been an integral aspect of my life for more than 30 years.

For me, painting the same subject repeatedly helps me find focus on an almost meditative level, allowing me to delve even deeper into various processes and experimentation, which results in far more intimate pieces. Through my work I strive to explore the fine lines between realism and abstract, geometric and organic, hard and soft.

My early roots as a black-and-white photographer helped create the foundation for my keen understanding of composition and light and continues to inspire my passion for encaustic painting and photo transfers.
When I’m composing a new work, I reflect constantly on mark making, adding and subtracting elements, and creating layers of interesting shapes, colors, and values that align with the overall energy of the piece.

For me, the greatest inspiration is the natural world outside my door on Cape Cod, where I am minutes from peaceful woods or the rhythm of the sea. As Mary Oliver said so perfectly in her poem, My Work is Loving the World, “Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.”