In the studio with artist, photographer and instructor Robert Louis Caldwell

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 t...

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...

  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 p...