Artist Robert D. McFarland was born in a small northern Utah town of Logan. He loved to explore the fields, old farmhouses and mountains of his native Cache Valley and to wake to the sound of Meadowlarks, Pheasants and the gurgling of irrigation ditches. Not knowing his future as an artist, Robert kept in his mind these images that would one day inspire his watercolor style.

In October of 1987, Robert's wife enrolled him in a beginning watercolor class as a birthday gift. He had been trying his hand at pencil drawings and she thought that watercolor lessons would be a good way to get some original art pieces on the walls. He met a woman in the class who owned a small gallery. She asked to exhibit his work and quickly sold the first few paintings he gave her; he took in more and those sold as well. Robert began painting seriously everyday and his work continued to sell. He realized he wasn't content staying at the level that was available in his watercolor class so he struck out on his own and began devouring books about painting. Robert cites his greatest influences as being Wyeth, Philip Jamison and Thomas Williams Jones. Robert's wife says she is still waiting for paintings to hang on the wall.

Robert has been involved in many major art shows in Utah which include the Utah Watercolor Society, Kimball Art Center Open Painting show in Park City, and the Springville Spring Salon at the Springville Museum of Art. He received "Artist of the Year" award at the annual Community Nursing "Celebration of Art and Soup," a very popular fundraising event in Salt Lake City. In 1997 he was featured in Southwest Art's emerging artist section.

Robert is drawn to scenes of vanishing America. Houses weathered with the patina of time, fields golden brown with the remains of fall harvest, air pungent with the smell of leaves and pumpkins glowing orange in the afternoon sun. His subjects are the things that he sees in the course of everyday life. He is attracted to the way light falls on a simple subject making something ordinary seem extraordinary.