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

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...

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...

  “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 ar...

Birds in Art Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum Wausau, Wisconsin September 10 – November 27, 2022 "Mexican Eagles" ​Oil on 1/2" gessoed maple panel, 28 x 50in I am honored to share that my painting “Mexican Eagles” has the prestigious honor to be included in the 2022 Birds in Art exhibition at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, September 10 through November 27, 2022, in Wausau, Wisconsin. Organized annually since 1976 by the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Birds in Art presents the very best contemporary artistic interpretations of birds and related subject matter. Each year, a jury selects approximately 100 works to take part in the exhibit. This year, 569 artists from around the world submitted. Robert is one of approximately 94 juried artists selected for the exhibit; the show will also include the work of many master wildlife artists. Birds in Art opens September 10, coinciding with Wausau’s Artrageous Weekend, a two-day, three-event art extravaganza on both sides...

  “In My Fathers Shadow” Oil on ½” gessoed panel, 20 x 16 Dedicated to my father, the man who encouraged me to enjoy the adventures of life. Where even to begin with this piece? I guess I should start with the summer of 1984 when I was eleven years old, and I had just finished my first week of Boy Scout camp. It was a great week spending time outdoors, camping, and all of the other things that go with being a Boy Scout. The older scouts were getting ready to go onto their second week of Scout camp, a 100-mile canoe trip in upstate New York, and I wanted to go. My father never batted an eye, absolutely no hesitation, “yes, you should go,” he said. On the other hand, my Mom didn't breathe easily again until I retired home safe. That was the adventure that started it all, and I have been getting out and enjoying all of the adventures that life has to offer. 1984 - Getting ready to go on my first adventure! My dad, myself, and my best friend Kendall Let's fast forward 35 years lat...

So, my grand idea moving forward is to offer several new instructional classes a month, short classes that are only a few hours, and multi-day classes. Both of which I want to prerecord so I can offer them immediately to the students who took the live online class. I didn’t realize the tremendous learning curve there would be in learning how to use and edit Adobe Premiere, a video editing program. I started Wednesday of this past week and just finished the promo video (Saturday at 10:15 pm) for my live online class Painting Technique - Cloud Study I that I am offering on September 2, 2020. I also put together the preliminary lessons that will need to be completed before the day of the class. My brain hurts immensely and my back hurts from parking my rear end in a chair for days on end but I am happy with the results. And I feel like Neo from the movie Matrix when he downloaded to his brain how to fight in martial arts and he turns to Morpheus and says “I know Kung Fu!” Of course, after...

Birds in Art Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum Wausau, Wisconsin September 11 - November 29, 2015 "On Tap (White-crowned Sparrow) " Oil on 1/2 Maple board 36 x 24 It is with great honor that I cordially invite you to the prestigious Birds in Art Exhibition at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin. My painting "On Tap (White-crowned Sparrow) " is one of 102 pieces from artists around the world juried into the exhibition. For me personally, I consider this exhibition to be the bar that I set for myself and my work – it is the best of the best! I hope that you can join me in Wausau for the exhibition's opening on Saturday, September 12, 2015. You'll find me in the museum's gardens where I will be one of the "Artists in Action." I hope you can stop by and see the latest drawing that I am working on and see many other amazing artists at work, too. "On Tap (White-crow...

NEW Painting! "Before and After (Zebras)" Oil on 1/2 in. Maple panel    16 x 12 Available through Lovetts Gallery Tulsa, Oklahoma 918.664.4732 The idea for this painting emerged one evening while I was sketching a zebra that I had spotted near the Silale swamp road in Tanzania, Africa. It was actually one of many zebra that I had seen that morning during a zebra “traffic jam.” The road next to Silale swamp runs pretty straight along the edge of the marsh, and the zebra were using the road as their route to a watering hole. As far as you could see, the zebra were nearly stacked one on top of another like dominoes, but they were kind enough to open a path so that we could drive through the herd. We slowly made our way to the head of the column as the zebra continued their journey, hardly paying us any attention at all. I seized the moment to capture reference photos from different vantage points and lighting angles but this particular scene, with the zeb...

New painting! " Disquieted Agitation (Lion)"  Oil on Board on 1/2 in. Maple panel  15 x 30  Within 11 seconds everything changed. In October 2013, I was in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania, with a group of artists taking part in an elephant conservation/awareness safari hosted by African Wildlife Trust. We did indeed have a great many opportunities to observe and witness the planet’s largest land mammal. But we also had the fortune to see myriad other species including the king himself, the lion. Out of my two trips to Tanzania, this particular moment that I have captured here is probably one of my most remarkable. It went from a calm, serene scene, almost boring, to intense agitation in the matter of seconds. I was fortunate enough to capture the changing moment with my camera. My fellow artist and professional photographer friend, James Gary Hines II , and I were standing up and out of the roof of the Land Cruiser photographing two lions by a baobab ...

Here is a sneak peek into the current painting that I have on my easel. Most of the reference for this particular piece came from a visit to Tulsa Oklahoma around two/three years ago. I was out visiting and exploring the country side with a collector friend of mine when he told me about this old water pump he had and after seeing it I knew I wanted to paint it! Progress to date... I am currently on the second layer of color, background is finished and I am currently working on the galvanized metal textures of the pump. This painting will be unveiled at an upcoming show at Lovetts Gallery in Tulsa, Oklahoma during the first weekend in November.

"Three Princes (African Elephant)" Oil on 1/2" prepared maple 36 x 48 The painting, “Three Princes (African Elephant),” is the first painting that I actually searched for in the field. The idea and inspiration for this piece came from what I believed at the time to be the loss of the opportunity to travel to Tanzania, Africa, for the first time in 2012 -- a loss that was soon corrected by what I perceived as serendipity. In order to get to Tanzania, I was attempting to presell paintings and/or drawings to my collectors, which when you think about it, you are asking someone to purchase something sight unseen. The deadline was fast approaching for me to put down the deposit for my trip and I hadn’t received any bites on my advance purchase promotions. I had come to the decision in my head that my trip would not happen. At the time that I was making this choice and getting ready to end the promotion, I was working on a drawing of an African elephant from re...

Fresh off of the easel, not even dry yet... "Black and Green (Black-crowned Night Heron, juvenile) " Oil on 1/2" prepared maple 12 x 24 Available exclusively through Lovetts Gallery in Tulsa, Oklahoma - www.lovettsgallery.com I started this painting awhile back and it simply went off and on the easel over several months because of other commitments but last week I was able to finish it up. The reference for this piece came from a visit to the National Zoo in Washington DC where I was looking for my friend and fellow artist Paul Rhymer's Hippo sculpture that was installed at the zoo. While looking for his work I stumbled on to an exhibit that a bunch of Black-crowned Night Heron's apparently live at - no they are not zoo animals but birds that have chosen to live there. I was very taken with all of the green reeds and the herons that were creeping through them. I hope you enjoy the painting!   

WIP - "Three Princes" Oil Painting, 24 x 36 Painting notes: I happily started back to work on my painting of the three bull elephants today! This painting has been composed and on the panel for several months now, mocking me from the corner of my studio - not anymore! This was actually the first piece that I composed when I got back from my Tanzania 2012 adventure and it was inspired by several events that lead up to my securing that adventure. So when I went to Tanzania I had this painting in mind and was extremely pleased to have captured the needed reference for this painting on the very last  day as I literally was driving out of the Tarangire gate. Currently the painting is in the under drawing stage, this is where I completely draw in the composition establishing all of my values of the finished piece, I will cover this with color. I find myself looking for a quicker way to get this stage done especially since it is a large pi...

Way to much time has gone by since my last posting and much has happened since then,  too much to even try to write about.  So I'll share what I currently have on the easel and actually it is the first painting that I have worked on in almost 7 months. The drawing book kept me covered in Graphite dust since the beginning of the year. This is the latest painting in progress on the esael and it's of a Lilac-breasted Roller perched  in a Baobab tree. It is a commission from my africa trip in 2012, the collector asked for one bird and that was the LBR and me being a newbie at traveling to africa I was worried that I wouldn't see one. Apparently they are everywhere and after the first day I had enough refernece to probably paint several paintings. The composition has been completly drawn  in and the canvas is tonned ready for color that you can is mixed and ready to go in the foreground on the pallette.

Presenting... "Weighted (Carolina Wren) " "Weighted (Carolina Wren)" Oil on 1/2 Maple Panel 18 x 24 You may find yourself asking, “What is that bird perched on?”  This painting was inspired by my travels to Oklahoma, particularly my 2010 visit to Tulsa when a friend of mine took me out into the fields looking for pumpjacks. Ever since my first visit to Oklahoma I have wanted to somehow incorporate a pumpjack into a painting. Now you may be asking what is a pumpjack? A pumpjack is the overground drive for a reciprocating piston pump in an oil well. It is used to mechanically lift liquid out of the a well and is very common in oil rich areas like Oklahoma. The prime mover, commonly an electric motor, of the pumpjack runs a set of pulleys to the transmission which drives a pair of cranks, generally with counterweights on them to assist the motor in lifting the heavy string of rods. The cranks raise and lower one end of an I-beam which is free to move o...

Like a bad smell that just won't go away... WIP: "Weighted (Carolina Wren)" Detail image, Oil, 18 x 24 The current painting on my easel is the same one that has been off and on it since April. I don’t usually have a negative “emotional” response to my paintings but with this one I do.  Don’t get me wrong I love all the pieces I create and my favorite piece is always the one that I am currently working on. Normally when I look at a piece that I have created it conjures up a piece of music that I listened to frequently while working on the piece but more often than not it will bring the story back that I was listening to  when I see the painting or drawing. The painting in question is the painting that I started back in March and used as my demo piece at my gallery exhibit. Not many people know it but I was very sick while in Oklahoma this year and I did my best to hide it and move forward with the opening and demo. It’s funny how you will work extremely hard for ...

Work in progress... This one has been off and on the easel since I got back from Tulsa, Oklahoma but it has finally reached its adolescent awkward stage. The first layer of color is blocked in and I can now see what I need to change on the next layer of color. I am playing a very careful game with this one and trying to balance the drastic textural differences between the metal and the Carolina Wren.

Work in progress... I have been scratching away at this one off and on over the last few weeks and the under drawing is almost done.    

As the end of the exhibit at Lovetts Gallery in Tulsa, Oklahoma draws near the end I would like to share the other four paintings that I unveiled at the "Out on a Whim" exhibit. The previous four paintings that were unveiled can be seen on my previous posting, "A Few New Paintings." "Last Snow ( Belted Kingfisher )," Oil on 1/2" prepared maple panel, 9 x 12 "Keystone ( Great Blue Heron )," Oil on 1/2" prepared maple panel, 30 x 40 "Woolaroc Visitor ( Lark Sparrow )," Oil on 1/2" prepared maple panel, 8 x 16 "Feathered Finials ( Rock Pigeons )," Oil on 1/2" prepared maple panel, 24 x 36 The "Out on a Whim" exhibit runs through April 17th at Lovetts Gallery in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for more information about the gallery please visit www.lovettsgallery.com or contact me at robert@rlcaldwell.com .  

Recently I unveiled eight new paintings at Lovetts Gallery in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  The exhibition was titled "Out on a Whim" which opened on March 17th and  runs through April 17th. I would like to share with a few of those pieces in this posting.   "British Attack ( Common Grackle )," Oil on 1/2 prepared maple panel, 11 x 14 The Twins! (They were separated at the gallery.)   "Two Left ( Carolina Wren )," Oil on 1/2 prepared maple panel, 8 x 10   "Two Right ( Carolina Wren )," Oil on 1/2 prepared maple panel, 8 x 10 "Shadow ( Scissor-tail Flycatcher )," Oil on 1/2 prepared maple panel, 18 x 24