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Into Drakes Bay, Point Reyes

, painting by Rob Robinson.

Rob climbed up a steep bluff to capture the vista from

Point Reyes Lighthouse into Drakes Bay in Northern

California. “It was on the edge, but a thrilling place

to paint.”

tical, very sensible. He was also very genuine—just

a jewel. I think about him every day.”

He met his future wife, Margaret “Peggy”

Brooks, while studying at the Santa Barbara College

of the University of California campus on the Riv-

iera. Frank and Peggy were living on a boat in the

Santa Barbara Harbor when their first child, Rob,

arrived in 1950. A year later, they moved up to the

Mountain Drive community, a bohemian enclave

for artistic, creative types in the hills of Montecito.

Here they built their own home and raised Rob and

four more children: Maia, Tamar, Rima and Louis.

Rob thrived in this close-knit community envi-

ronment, spending much of his childhood build-

ing forts in trees and underground, and foraging

the canyons and mountains alongside their home.

“Growing up, everyone helped build each other’s

houses, walls, pools—whatever we needed. We were

always welcome in everyone’s homes. Lots of artists

and teachers lived there, and arts were a part of the

culture. We walked to Cold Spring School and con-

nected with the natural world along the way.”

Rob’s sister Maia says, “As children, we were

surrounded by the earth, the chaparral and the

oaks. We built our house with adobe bricks that we

made from the soil on our property.”

Frank Robinson nurtured his children’s design

and building skills by including them in projects.

“Our father took us to his jobs on occasion, and

we earned a little bit of cash picking up nails and

doing general job cleanup,” recalls Maia. “We all

learned perspective and balance through his design

renderings. He designed two of the homes that my

husband and I built and helped Rob to design three

homes that he built on Mountain Drive.”

Rob says his father also taught him a valu-

able lesson that has served him well throughout

his life. “When there was something you had to

do or wanted to do, he would say ‘make a decision

you’re going to do it, and then make it happen.’”

Rob vividly recalls a time when he was about ten

years old and his father gave him the chore of

chopping a large pile of wood. “I’ll do my best,”

said young Rob, to which Frank replied, “No,

you don’t understand, this isn’t about doing your

best, it’s about getting it done.” Rob says he didn’t

understand the sage advice at the time. “In fact,

I was somewhat perplexed, but later realized the

strength and results gained in sincerely commit-

ting to something.”

Sister Maia says, “I think the people in Rob’s

life and the physical environment he was raised

in are a big part of the basis for his paintings and

for the emotion that comes through in his work.

Mountain Drive was pretty much uncharted terri-

tory when we were kids, as far as a place to live, and

it could be very rough but also very freeing, with

lots of room to create your own space.”

Maia adds that their mother, Peggy, also influ-

enced their connections with the arts and nature.

“Our mother gave us our love of music and plant

life. She was a botanist and was endlessly curi-

ous about all of our native plants. We spent many

hours hiking the trails and blazing new ones in the

hills above Santa Barbara. It fostered an intimate

knowledge of the area.”

54

Montecito Magazine

Spring/Summer 2017