Bob Menzies was raised in New Zealand and moved to Australia in 1981. From a young age, he was compelled to be involved in different types of arts including visual arts, acting, script writing, A script he wrote in High School was later requested by the Rotorua Little Theatre Group to put on the play in 1982. During the 1970s, he was involved in the Rotorua Operatic Theatre and was on stage for several productions, including two productions with the New Zealand Tenor, Rob Guest. Bob Menzies visual arts exploration also began to be explored, working with Oil Pastel, created portraits. Continuing with drawing, he began exploring different media. 2006 saw he started to transition painting in Acrylics and Ink, predominantly in surrealism, as his drawing style started to gather momentum in producing works. His work gathered interest and started selling and inspired him to investigate techniques further and enhancing skills by getting involved with other artists and continuously visiting galleries. Menzies use of Mixed media and materials began with the use of soft, hard and oil pastels and surpassed and started to include ceramics and sculptural work. He developed a technique melting old hard oil pastels with a soldering iron with custom made nibs that created different textures. A lot of his work has an environmental and veteran focus, bordering abstraction and surrealism. Menzies artwork are throughout Australia, New Zealand, and the United States of America. Menzies had donated a piece of my artwork to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra during 2020, depicting the 103 Signal Squadron 50th Anniversary, 2015, Acrylic paint on an Aluminum Satellite Dish. The Satellite Dish was used by Australian Defence contingent at Camp Baker, Kandahar, Afghanistan, prior to 2014. The diameter of 920mm. The painting has been internationally catalogued with Australian War Memorial. Menzies in attending the University of Canberra and is undertaking the Batchelor of Creative Industries (Visual Arts).
