About six weeks prior to the Still Lives exhibition opening, I had a cup of tea with Robert around the corner from the studio. We chatted about his work and what I was up to at art college. I went to his studio about once a week to watch him paint  and  seek his advice on my work.  He seemed pale that day and had a chesty cough. Robert's complexion was naturally pale but that day he was a green pale. He got worse over the next five weeks. We met up again, this time he was really looking under the weather. and the cough was deeper. He was due to travel to London that weekend to see his brother. We'd agreed to meet up over the weekend to move some large painting to another studio location, but he decided to postpone.

That  weekend it was announced on the radio that Robert had died in London.  The Still Lives exhibition opened and the art world punters swarmed on the studio in an attempt to pick up some work.  About a fortnight passed, during which everyone who knew Robert was grief stricken. When the question of the death cerficate's whereabouts was raised, everyone thought it was just a formality.  However, it appeared that there were a number of irregularities and the media were quick to  pick up on these. Out of nowhere Robert suddenly appears at the studio and calls a press conference.  Press, tv and radio were invited into the studio to get his story first hand. He  excused himself a moment before anyone had a chance to record his existence, he'd locked the assembled group in his studio and fled in a car to, we later found out, Lord Elliots' estate.  The exhibition title STILL LIVES started to make more sense. He finally turned up again two weeks later. The exercise had been a serious attempt to understand people's behaviour after his death. It was part of the project. He later explained to me that he had used make up for two months to create the convincing pale look . He'd told some people that he thought he might have TB or pneumonia.