Eric Robson trained at the Carlisle Institute for the Arts 1955 – 1960 and in 1963 he travelled overland via north Africa, Egypt and Sudan to Ethiopia in an ex-army lorry, self-converted into a motor home.
This started his life-long love affair with Ethiopia.
He has worked for extended periods of time in Ethiopia interspersed with years spent back in the UK.
In 1964 he began working for the Ethiopian Ministry of Education on the production of new textbooks and educational materials. He returned to this work in 1992.
From 1977 to 1986 he worked as Graphics Officer in the British Museum (Natural History).
Thereafter, for much of his time he has worked freelance, with clients including the Science Museum, the Radio Times, Macmillan, the Sunday Times, Danbury Mint, and Volkswagen.
In 1996 he spent a season working as archaeological illustrator with Cambridge University at Aksum and in 1998 he completed a trek from Zula on the Red Sea to Magdala.
He frequently worked with Ato Hapte-Selassie Tafessa (“the Father of Ethiopian Tourism”) the former Minister of the Ethiopian Tourism Commission.
In 2015 he completed the illustrations for the website www.ethiopianenglishreaders.com
He now lives and works in Leeds.
