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hen your family lineage is made up of artists, it seems only natural that you would become one, and that is exactly what happened with Rob Nemeth. After years of watching his grandfather, art was always something he just did. Rob was constantly amazed that his grandad could create such beautiful works out of thin air, like magic. As a kid, Rob would draw inspiration from just about anything; comics, sci-fi movies, Iron Maiden album covers, etc. After that, he looked to painters like Frank Frazetta, Jeff Jones, and some comic book illustrators like Kent Williams and George Pratt. From there it was a rabbit hole effect, learning who his favorites were influenced by, and in turn, being influenced by them himself. Even today, the list of people he looks to for inspiration is still growing. “When I was young, I wanted to learn to paint, but it’s not like I thought it’d March ‘18 - CYCLE SOURCE MAGAZINE
Article By: Amelia “Killer” Rose
be. You never just get it, and you’re done. There is always another step, a higher gear, something to learn from or somebody better. In that way, it mirrors
riding. There is always something you can do better, a road you have not been down. Always more to learn.” In high school, he sold his work on the side and then went on to study at
an arts college and soon after began hunting illustration jobs. The work was hard, and he ended up spending more time looking for and landing paying gigs than he did painting, and when he was painting, the subjects weren’t things he wanted to paint. After a while, he lost focus and trailed off; then he followed a string of odd jobs. Finally, Rob as a starving artist trying to make a living landed in a motorcycle shop in the 90’s. Fortunately, this turned out to be something he loved, between the bikes, riding, and the great friends (brothers), life was good. During that time, Nemeth quit painting, though was never truly satisfied with this move. Following the disintegration of his personal life and the changes in the motorcycle business, he turned back to art, but this time the motorcycle shop gave him more focus and changed his subject matter. The things he learned on the road became the stories he wanted to paint. For his paintings, Rob’s medium of
