Robert Semans

After finishing a Masters Degree program at San Jose State University in 1970, Robert Semans moved to Florence, Italy where he worked in the studio of the famed Italian teacher Nerina Simi.  Two years later he was invited to be Artist-in-Residence at Seattle University in Washington.  It was there that he began his work in portraiture. Although he paints a variety of subject matter from landscape to still life, Semans still prefers the challenge of painting people, whether in the context of portraits or scenes from his own imagination.  He draws inspiration from many of the old masters, but has been most influenced by the paintings of Vermeer, Jean Baptiste Simeon, Chardin, and John Singer Sargent. It is these painters who have inspired the soft tonality and careful design which characterize his work.  A meticulous artist, Semans always paints studies, or ‘dress rehearsals,’ before commencing the final portrait.  In these studies, he carefully works out the details of composition, color scheme and pose. Semans was commissioned to paint the official portrait of former California governor Gray Davis. His portraits are also found in the collections of NASA—Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California, NASA-Langley in Virginia, the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. Semans was also commissioned by the Luminary Society of Palo Alto to paint a 9‘x 18’ portrait of 14 inventors who were pioneers in technology in Silicon Valley.  He is a member of the American Society of Portrait Artists.