Robert Bailey was born and raised
in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, England. He attended Longton College of Art
in Staffordshire during the early 60's. After moving to Canada at the age
of 17, he finished school and embarked upon a career in photography. Variously
as a photo lab technician and motion picture photographer for a television
station in British Columbia during the early 70's he also hosted a children's
television show in Kelowna, British Columbia. He then moved on to journalism
and photographic work at a big city newspaper in Calgary, Alberta. After that
he became an advertising layout artist at the same newspaper. During all of
this time he was painting World War II subjects in oil on canvas, as a
hobby.
After this he was a medical photographer
at a big city hospital in Edmonton, Alberta. It was during this time that he
began to publish lithographs of his war action canvases. This involved many
trips to the U.S. to have them signed by American aircrews and ground crews.
Trips to Germany and Czech Republic followed, again in order to obtain original
signatures from fighter and bomber pilots. These lithos were sold
worldwide and became so successful that Robert had to quit his medical job to
take over the business, which then became full time with his wife
Michelle.
He published a coffee table style book of
his aviation work titled A Brush With
History, about half of which sold in the U.K. The edition has been long
sold out. Forewords were written by prominent pilots from the Second World
War.
After many years creating oil canvases of
war battles and amassing them on a large website, Star Wars creator George
Lucas became aware of them and asked Robert to work on a project called STAR
WARS VISIONS, which was published in both limited edition and an open edition
coffee table style books. Robert was one of about thirty other artists who
participated. He visited Skywalker Ranch in California and was taken on a
three day tour of operations, including Industrial Light and Magic and THX,
plus the main house on the ranch, at that time all a part of Lucasfilm.
He and George Lucas met in George's office
and chatted about Lucas's needs for future work. These included a request for
new aliens, new planets, new ships, and new alien architecture. However, Robert
focused on finished art for Lucas's collection and preferred not to do concept
art.
During this visit, Robert knew nothing at
all about Star Wars. He had seen A NEW HOPE when it was first released, but
that was all. So he had to familiarize himself with all of the characters and
story lines. Lucas sent him a box the size of a refrigerator full of research
material so that he could do this.
Robert's first work for George Lucas
was rejected. But the artist soon got to know what Lucas liked, and quickly
went on to produce material that was purchased my Lucas personally. This
included a number or World War II battle scenes involving the Tuskegee Airmen
(black Mustang fighter pilots). The movie
Red Tails was shot and released about a year later. Lucas also purchased a
large number of the limited edition prints from Bailey's ten or twelve separate
lithograph projects of the Tuskegee, all signed by the fighter pilots. Many
went to the cast and crew of the movie.
After Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney, Robert
continued with Star Wars fine art in pencil only, selling originals from
his website and at comic conventions with the blessing of Lucasfilm. These were
and continue to be all originals. He is now known mostly for his Star Wars
art work
