Robert Sedgley was born in the midlands of England and attended Mosely Secondary School of Art and Crafts, Birmingham from the age of twelve. This early experience confirmed him in his lifelong dedication to the visual arts. It was there that he learnt Roman lettering with its emphasis on spacing and correct proportion, a discipline that trained his eye and honed his drawing skills as well as imparting a consciousness of design and composition. It is to this and his subsequent work as a lettering artist that he attributes his insistence on composition as the basis and structure of his art.
After leaving school he trained first as a silk screen printer and then as a poster writer, working for some six years in these professions, all the time continuing his practice as a painter.
Then as a mature student he attended Birmingham and Exeter Colleges of Art and the City of Leicester Polytechnic, subsequently teaching painting, sculpture and photography in the art departments of various comprehensive schools in Hertfordshire, and was head of department for eight years before moving to Spain. Whilst teaching he attended evening courses at St Albans College of Art to learn bronze casting. Sculpture has since become a parallel activity to his practice as a painter.
He has travelled widely in Europe, Uganda and Sri Lanka, and has exhibited in England, Sri Lanka and Spain