Teeing Up the Muse: Robert Fletcher Puts His Art Before the Course

Local artist and lifelong golfer Fletcher captures the game’s legends through art.

Colorado AvidGolfer

Bob Fletcher’s studio sports a view of the second fairway at Arvada’s West Woods Golf Course. “Talk about inspiration!” the artist says. A lifelong golfer, the sexagenarian Fletcher has flirted with a single-digit handicap, but his work keeps him from playing more often. His current index hovers at 13.7, and that’s just fine with him. The more strokes he gets on the course seems to correspond to the number of brushstrokes he gets to apply to his canvases, many of which capture his love of golf.

That passion expresses itself in the deft edging and shading with which Fletcher captures the game’s legends. Five of his stylized portraits—of Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Harry Vardon and the Tom Morrises—fetched more than $6,600 during a Green Jacket Auction (greenjacketauctions.com) that ended last December. More will go up for bid around the Masters.

Paintings of Ben Hogan (left) and Harry Vardon (right) by Robert Fletcher.

Vintage golf tableaux populate many of his other works. His membership in the Society of Hickory Golfers has produced numerous scenes of plus-foured men and long-skirted women. Although golf has served as his muse, Fletcher also paints landscapes, still lifes, portraits and regularly takes commissions. “Each painting leads me in its own way,” he says. “They all take me down a different path.”

Fletcher also sculpts. His 42-inch-high bronze of Arnold Palmer tossing his visor at the 1960 U.S. Open stands outside Cherry Hills Country Club’s Hall of Champions. Randy Condit of Condit Exhibits, which built the hall, saw Fletcher’s works at Loveland’s annual Sculpture in the Park show and approached the artist. Fletcher created the piece, along with a limited edition of smaller versions that were sold to members to benefit the Chick Evans Scholarship Fund.

Fletcher's statue of Arnold Palmer after winning the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills.

Fletcher says painting, sculpting and golf are all very similar. “Each requires some level of hand-eye coordination, a great deal of practice and abundance of patience,” he contends. “Frustration can be converted to reward as you flounder one moment and flourish the next.”
In addition to online auctions, Fletcher has flourished by selling his work through his own website, by appointment and occasionally at fairs and on consignment. “I try to be a businessman about it,” he says about his pricing. “I figure if I don’t have any pieces left at the end of a show, I’ve priced them too low.” 

Fletcher has also immortalized Tiger, Phil, Freddie and the Big Three. “I like today’s players too,” he says. That includes Rickie Fowler, although “I don’t like his hat. I’m old school. I like the bill of the cap to be bent.”

More info: robertfletcherart.com

Old Tom Morris as painted by Fletcher.

This article appeared in the April 2016 issue of Colorado AvidGolfer.

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Colorado AvidGolfer is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it. It publishes eight issues annually and proudly delivers daily content via www.coloradoavidgolfer.com.