In his 50-year teaching career at the University of Arkansas, Professor Emeritus Robert Ross influenced numerous Arkansas artists, while simultaneously creating an impressive volume of work in his tiny Fayetteville studio. He grew up in Rye, New York, and was a graduate of Yale and the University of Arizona. Lifelong interest in Buddhism and Eastern philosophies gave him a unique approach to landscape and figure painting. Through experimentation he invented his own technique of applying pastel on wood, which created a more permanent bond between pigment and surface and allowed him to layer and stain the wood. Ross sees the relationship between his images and the wood as a way to convey the metaphysical notion that we are all made of the same material, and thus we are all one at core.