Predominantly a realist still life painter, Robert Stark III focuses on the subtle effects of light on his subject matter and settings of the painting. A painter in the luminist tradition, he strives to pull the viewer into his paintings through the representation of minute detail.

Stark draws strongly from the Dutch still life painters for technique. Through repeated applications of oil glaze, the artist has developed a chiaroscuro style that gives the painting and the subject itself a strong sense of depth. Glazing permits a painter to manipulate pigments to either reflect or absorb light, producing an illusion of three dimensionality. Stark invites the observer to “scrutinize” the painting; by portraying every detail and imperfection of the subject, he gives simple subjects personality.

Raised on Nantucket island, Massachusetts, Stark attended the Taft School and Georgetown University where he majored in Asian Sudies and Fine Arts. He comes from an artistic lineage: both his father and his grandparents are and were painters.