Introduction

Robert Leonard George Meaton was born in Brighton, England on October 21, 1936. He was two months premature and started life weighing just 2.5 lbs. He was lucky to live and later commented: "life has been a battle and a bonus ever since".

Despite coming from a very poor background, he had loving parents who fully nurtured his talents in art. He worked hard at school and did quite well academically. This led to a 5 year period at Brighton College of Art and Craft. It was here that he met a fellow student called Brian Blanchflower who was to become a lifelong friend.

Bob felt that college helped him to develop his observational skills, but he found the environment was too constrained for his rich imagination. In 1958 age 21, Bob left college to commence a transitional period which he refers to as his 'apprenticeship'. Fundamentally he considers his development as an artist and his development as a human being as a unified process - a single journey.

The journey began in 1958 when Bob was inducted into the International Volunteer Service who sent him to Switzerland to help rescuers at a landslide.

The 1960s