The Dan Robbins Room

--After searching through reference material, looking for what was to become the first of six 12x16 paint by numbers subjects, I ran across an article and photo in the National Geographic about the hard life of the fishermen off the coast of New England. I was particularly impressed by the way the craft was silhouetted by the sky, while the fishermen were almost lost in the rough sea. I tried to capture that mood with my painting. Because of the size of the available canvas we decided to add two small subjects to the kits so the artist would have an arrangement of three coordinated paintings.

--This painting had originally been a high school art project. I was under pressure to develop as many paint by number subjects as quickly as possible, and I thought it might work as a “fantasy” subject. It never sold well and was dropped from the line shortly after publication. As a result of its rarity it has become highly valued by collectors of early Craft Master paintings.

--Travel posters were always a good source of ideas for subjects. If the composition was good enough to be appeal to travelers, it was probably good enough to become a paint by number subject. Besides, who could resist the majesty of that towering peak?

--I had been asked for demonstration of how paint by numbers would work. I decided to do a simple abstract painting because that seemed easy to do in segments of color. Abstracts were popular at the time and seemed like an artistic way of explaining the idea. So, with a little Braque, a little Picasso and a lot of Robbins, I created a 12x16 painting in 22 colors. I called it Abstract No.1. My boss got the idea, but hated the painting so I designed The Fishermen for our first kit. However, we included Abstract No.1 in the catalog of our first six kits. Eventually it became very famous when someone entered a completed Abstract No.1 in an art show and won. The judges were quite embarrassed but the prize resulted in lots of debate about the concept of art and lots of publicity about paint by numbers. Abstract No. 1 became so famous that it has been reissued as a commemorative kit.

Looking for something a little different, I decided to create a kit with four coordinated pictures by splitting the 12x16 canvas in half. I was attracted to the idea of a man and woman sharing a tropical life in a warm climate. In order to add this picture and The Bullfighter to the catalog we had to expand our production pallet to sixty different mixed oil colors.

--I had just read about the history of Manolet, the famous matador in Spain, and was determined to capture the essence of that death defying, yet beautiful struggle between man and beast. I wanted to be Hemmingway with paint and brush. A few of the first run of this kit went out with colors that were incorrectly numbered. The mistake was quickly noticed when the bullfighters ended up with blue capes.

--I was looking for a more complex composition and chose this scene. The perspective is looking outside, through a small window at the bright sunlight and shadows of a hot tropical afternoon. I wanted to show how the streets are quiet and deserted during the mid-afternoon siesta.

--This is a triumph of fall color over summer green. It is a scene that takes you down a winding road as one color gives way to another and yet another, announcing the coming of a new season.

--Nothing is so peaceful and quiet as newly-fallen snow after a storm in the countryside. The light dazzles the eyes, and the air is pure, clean, and fresh. I tried to capture that feeling of wonder when even the slightest sound can be heard from a great distance.

--Everyone likes pets, particularly dogs and more particularly when playful puppies are with their mother. Animals have an almost universal appeal, especially when representing family and motherhood. This subject has become a staple in paint by number catalogs. Many people collect paint by numbers of specific animals.

--Ah, romance! Flowers will do it every time. No matter what the flower, there is universal appeal. I knew this subject would be a hit and in fact, this was probably the most popular kit ever made. Flowers are another subject that many collectors specialize in.

--It didn’t take long to discover that landscapes, seascapes, really almost any calendar scene would make appealingly good paint by number subjects. This is a good example of combining various ideas into one original composition. This composition stresses foreground, middle ground and background leading the eye throughout the scene.

--Inspiration for this scene was easy. It was from a photo I took while vacationing on the west coast.

--As expected, it became obvious that flowers would be one of the basic subjects with general appeal. In this case, good reference material provided all the inspiration needed to add the “sure winner” to the selection of subjects.

--Although numbered CM-15, this was actually one of the first subjects attempted. I knew right from the beginning that animals, and especially horses, would be popular with children as well as adults. Over the course of many years, I was proven right. Horses were very popular and very collectable.

--This was something different; a kind of romantic, poetic approach. It was an experiment, but then again, we always had to try something new to keep the line fresh.

--Landscapes were always popular, especially if they reflected the changing seasons. This vantage point overlooked the village below after a snowfall, adding dimension and nostalgia to the scene.

--“Enough of the pretty stuff”, we said, “Let’s give the men a subject they can relate to.” And that included subjects that invoked the outdoor sportsman.

--This pair of hunting dogs were not only pals to each but to their owners as well. I was inspired by their teamwork. I painted their portraits against a bright blue fall sky. You could almost smell that cold clean fresh air.

--This subject was in answer to many requests for subjects about children. As the line expanded, it became obvious there was a market for this type of subject targeted to parents. Not my personal choice but a category that sold well.

--Ever since seeing the movie, “Mutiny on the Bounty”, I have been intrigued with these majestic ships sailing the oceans with unfurled sails, catching the wind and somehow navigating the from port to port. How did they do that?

--This was the first of other nudes to follow. In every case, no illustrations were shown on the package, encouraging painters to view this subject in the privacy of their own home. I believe the first time Nude with Shawl was shown in public was in a publicity photo of Arthur Godfrey painting the subject while recuperating from hip surgery.

--We had never attempted a religious subject before. There was some concern about entering that genre and the risk of offending people who might feel it was not an appropriate hobby subject. We decided that stained glass was a medium to tell the story that almost everyone could relate to. The success of this kit set the stage for other religious subjects to follow.

--I knew that “playful” was appealing to pet owners so I tried this approach with kitten love, hoping to get an: “Aw, aren’t these kittens cute?

--We learned that some children were frightened by clown portraits, so we decide to put the clowns into a circus act in order to make it more fun and less frightening.

--Not my favorite subject at all. But we had received many requested for nursery rhymes. Obviously, each subject was taken from a nursery rhyme. As I guessed, it didn’t sell well, but we tried.

--We had recently expanded our production facilities into Canada. To show Canadians that we considered their market important, we decided to create subjects that would be specific to the Canadian market. One of those subjects would be Queen Elizabeth and that I would do myself. As a collectible, it is considered to be the rarest Craft Master. Some famous collectors like June Mersky used to say that they would keep collecting until they got one. Several years ago a Queen Elizabeth sold at auction for an amazing $3200.

--Another in a series of “Aw, aren’t they cute” subjects. This time the subject combined a cat and dog in playful destruction. By now, we were getting pretty tired of this type of pet paintings, but still trying to fill the demand.

--This scene combines the style of calendar art with the themes of outdoor activity and the grandeur of snow covered mountains.

Soon after introducing Craft Master at $2.50 and Masterpiece at $5.00, competing manufacturers came out with a line of $1.00 sets for children. Our answer was the 1,2,3 set consisting of two matching 8x10 canvases and 12 premixed colors.. Once again, I did many of the first subjects, mostly to get a feel of what was possible under these limitations of color and size. Some of these first subjects included K-12 AMERICAN INDIANS, K-13 STABLEMATES AND K-15 MAN’S BEST FRIEND. Many more subjects were created by our talented art staff. As competition continued to grow, I spent less and less time at the drawing board and more time directing the development of new products and subjects.

--Now, with a larger size canvas and 35-45 colors to work with, I could really get into it. What better place to start than with a picturesque harbor scene found up and down the New England coast. But the thing I remember most about this painting was contemplating a name to paint on the white rowboat in the foreground when our bookkeeper, Ann Vashinski came by to see how I was doing. In jest she suggested I call it the ANN V. I thought, “Why not? Well, you would have thought I had named a great vessel after her. She was so thrilled to see her name on the first production set of Harbor Reflections. She brought in a bottle of champagne and we all toasted the ANN V as I came off the assembly line.

--What I liked most about this painting was the long shadows cast by the early morning sun on a fall day. I remember walking down a similar dirt road watching the scenery change as I passed by the familiar red barn and the old oak tree. I tried to recapture that feeling.

--I spent most of the first ten years of my life in Florida and later in California. I had never seen snow until moving to the mid west. This is how I pictured snow from calendars, posters, books and pictures. Here again I selected a subject that reminded me of what I had missed as a child. I could smell the cold crisp air. How cool!

--Of all the paintings I have designed, this one means the most to me. It was inspired by stories my mother told me about how she and her friends used to play near an old mill. She was thrilled when I told her I had painted it just for her. She was the first to paint it, hanging it on the wall before it was even dry. At every opportunity she would she would say, “Look what my sonny boy painted for me so that I could paint it just for him”. I still have her painting of the Old Mill.

--This was our first attempt and an “artistic nude”. I didn’t actually paint this finished version, but created the original concept to be sure that it was in good taste. After it’s initial success, more nudes followed, painted mostly by Adam Grant, the best figure painter on our staff of talented artists. Pretty risky at the time, but I knew that, sooner or later nudes would become a staple in the Masterpiece line. How could they not be?

--Nothing is so romantic as a clipper ship in full sail on the open sea. I tried to give it something extra by tilting the ship to suggest movement against a body of water. The story behind this painting is that Max Klein insisted that all paintings have at least touch of red in them. Reluctantly, in a later version I added a red flag atop the main mast.

--Early morning fog. No breeze, just the silhouette of sails off in the distance. The only sound is the shrieking of seagulls. The mood is pensive and quiet. I think I just wanted to get away from the pressure of always coming up with appealing, colorful exciting subjects. Just leave me alone for while.

--This was really a good composition, with the bridge in the foreground as the eye passes under the bridge, following the stream as it meanders through the background. The only thing different about this landscape was that it, if you looked closely, you could barely make out two figures in the distance. It was one of the first times that we added figures in what was usually just a landscape, but you had to look closely to find them.

--Flowers are not necessarily my favorite subjects. There were many artists on our staff who painted flowers exclusively. But this was going to be something different; an enlarged detailed close up of a flower as if seen through a magnifying glass, letting the detail dominate the composition. Once again we seem to have set the stage for our competitors to follow. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, we were being flattered to death. Even though it was not my favorite subject, it has become a very desirable collectible.

--The title is certainly a misnomer. The scene is hardly a sleigh ride, but rather a team of horses pulling a load of cut timber. No matter. The thing I remember most about this subject is that we enlarged it more than twice size, using it at a trade show to demonstrated the concept of paint by numbers. The fact that I was the one doing the demonstration remains a fond memory of those early days.