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Continuing this week to dust off the cobwebs

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Presenting “All that Glitters” 9 x 12, Oil I am continuing this week to dust off the cobwebs from my paintbrushes with the second finished painting for 2024, titled “All that Glitters.” This is another bird from my reference gathering trip to South Texas in February 2023. And it is another bird I had not seen before, a Gold-fronted Woodpecker.  As with my last painting, I wanted to keep the background simple again, focusing on the value instead of any details. The grass behind the bird had a golden look, so I kept the color but lost all of the grass textures.  One of the distinguishing markings on the Gold-fronted Woodpecker is the yellow spot in front of its eyes and the yellow-orange nape. I wanted to play off the yellow, so I added some yellow flowers from the field where I had photographed the bird. It makes the painting sparkle, hence the title “All that Glitters.” I feel completely settled in my new studio and have my painting feet back underneath me. I am now ready to tackle the
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Presenting “Chara Verde” 9 x 12, Oil My first painting for 2024! More importantly, it was the first painting I completed in 24 months. I would expect your response to that to be, “Twenty-four months!?” Yes, twenty-four months. I refer to the last four years as “Life Interrupted.” Let's see, it all started with the Pandemic, then the loss of my Art academy, the passing of my father, my Mother’s cancer diagnosis, my wife and I moving into a historical home, the rebuild of my new studio, my mother’s second round of cancer treatment and my grandmother in hospice. As a friend told me recently, “Life is not for the weak.” I finally got moved in and settled in my new studio at the beginning of January, and I thought it would be a great idea to create two small paintings before starting a large commission I have to do. You know, dust off the cobwebs from my paintbrushes. My commission took me to Texas in February of 2023 to capture reference photos of a Crested Caracara. I also had the opp
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It’s been a hot minute since I posted.

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  I have been busy in a different creative way over the past ten months I’ve built my new studio. In September of 2023, my wife and I bought a historical home that we have been watching since 2018, and when it came on the market, we grabbed it. We love old houses and the character that they come with. Our new/old home was built in 1866 by Thomas Pollard and was originally a house on a 30-acre tract. The house is only a part of the overall package we fell in love with. On the back part of the property was an old Smokehouse with a couple of additions added to it over the last 158 years. Besides being the original smokehouse, it was also used for housing livestock, cows and chickens, and then a work shed. The original structure and inspiration for the new studio. This was going to be my studio! I initially thought a little bit of hard work would be enough to restore the structure, seal it from the elements, and heat and cool it so I could use it as my studio. I quickly found out the power
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New work from artists and students in my mentoring studios! (December 2022)

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The artists and students I work with have been hard at work again. Below are several new paintings and drawings in various mediums, subjects, and artistic styles from a handful of the artists I work with. I love the joy they each experience once they have completed a new piece, and as always, we work through the difficulties and frustrations of the creative process. I hope you enjoy their new pieces! Are you interested in joining a mentoring studio? Visit my Drawing and Painting Instruction website at learn.rlcaldwell.com/p/mentorship-studios . I am also a Master Mentor with Matrius, where we meet monthly to receive feedback, suggestions, and critiques on current projects. Visit my profile page on Mastrius website at mastrius.com/robert-caldwell-mentorship . Urban Landscape, Oil by Paula Smith. Thursday evening mentoring studio. Wildlife/Landscape, Oil by Pam Landreth. Tuesday morning mentoring studio. Nature/Landscape, Pastel by Sonya Richeson. Thursday evening mentoring studio. Wild
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Section 2 of my Basic Color Theory course is in production!

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Now that section 1 of my Basic Color Theory course is complete and launching on July 25, 2022, I am now focusing on the production of section 2. Section 1 was filled with theory and mixing exercises. Section 2, after one more mixing exercise, begins to put all of the theory and exercises to use with painting the first still life painting of the course. Section 2 is a concentration on red, green, and their complementary color mixtures, so of course, the still life will have red and green subjects. Since this is the first still life painting and I want students to focus on mixing more than textures, I chose red and green peppers. Completed tonal painting for the first still life painting for my Basic Color Theory course. I paint using the indirect method, so naturally, I teach using the same process. I just finished and rendered the first lesson of the still life painting, which covers painting the tonal layer. I wanted to share a short clip of the lesson towards the end so you can see h
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My Basic Color Theory Course Launches July 25!

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March 14, 2022, is when I started to edit and produce my Basic Color Theory Course. When I started this project, I had no idea what it would take and how much I had to learn. Four months later, I am ready to launch the first section of the course! I have been teaching this course since 2011, and the recorded version of the course is the same as it was when I was teaching in person but on steroids. For the first time in my teaching history, students get a front-row seat right behind my shoulder and watch every brush stroke I make, how I work the paint on the palette even how I clean my brush. Students receive clear and precise instruction through real-time video and can pause or rewind the instruction. The one indisputable fact I have learned over the years is that not everyone learns at the same pace. I love this new format of sharing my drawing and oil painting instruction it allows students to work at their own pace. My Basic Color Theory course is a bundle of five sections, and each
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Go and Paint Another!

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  “Feigned Innocence” Oil on ½” Gessoed Maple Panel 16 x 10 It is always a fantastic day in the studio when you receive an email from one of your galleries informing you that a painting has sold and your payment is on the way. I am always honored that someone decided to purchase one of my paintings to hang on their walls, but I think of it as the highest compliment an individual can give an artist. When purchasing a piece of art, you are telling that artist to go and paint another. Thank you to Lovetts Gallery in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for once again helping one of my pieces to find its home, you are all the best, and I love working with you, Detail image 1 This painting was inspired by a photography reference trip to Yellowstone a few years back with my friend and fantastic artist Julie Bender . We were driving one of the many roads in Yellowstone looking for wildlife to photograph when we came around a corner and saw this little Red Fox trotting down the road. We immediately turned around
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