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

Presenting... "Woolaroc Visitor (Lark Sparrow) " "Woolaroc Visitor (Lark Sparrow) " Oil on 1/2 prepared maple panel 8x16 As with many of my paintings, this one came from one of my “adventures,” this time from a visit to the Woolaroc Museum & Wildlife Preserve in Bartlesville, Oklohoma. I had just finished a group exhibit with The Gallery of Artists . Friend and fellow artist Paul Rhymer and I were packed up in the truck ready to head home to Virginia when we spotted this beautiful Meadowlark perched on the barbed wire bordering one of the pastures outside of the museum. Paul pulled over so we could see the bird move along its perch, and after sitting there for a few minutes, he slapped me on the shoulder and said, “Well?” I said, “Well, what?” He then reminded me that we had a long drive home and asked if I was going to take a picture or if I was going to let this fleeting moment of beauty pass.   For many reasons, t...

Color mapping, Part 3 My road to how I taught myself color theory and how to mix paint.   Example of CMYK to make black So I introduced the subtractive color theory model in the last color mapping post. The subtractive color theory model states that as you mix your primary colors, red, yellow & blue, together in equal parts that they become darker. To clarify this more we need go back to our school days of science and talk about energy and matter. All objects are made up of matter, which are in turn a grouping of atoms that contain energy. Light contains energy which is compatible with the energy in surfaces of objects, which absorbs the energy of the light. The molecular make-up of the object will determine what light energy is absorbed and what is reflecting back, which is the color that you see. If a surface absorbs all of the light energy then it will reflect none of the lights energy and the surface will appear black. The energy that is absorbe...

Robert's Holiday drawing workshop! Saturday 12/3/2011, 9:00am-4:00pm, 1 hour lunch, bring your own. Sunday 12/4/2011, 10:00am – 2:00pm, 1 hour lunch, bring your own. Workshop location ArtHaus Visual Arts Studio 1811 Huguenot Road, #304 Midlothian, VA 23113 $225.00 this includes your drawing paper and the frame! Every year Robert draws a special drawing that encompasses the holiday season which he then uses for his holiday greetings card. Robert is giving you a special opportunity to join him on a two day workshop where you will draw along with him creating the same drawing that he is. The drawing is a surprise and you will not know what it is until the day of the workshop. It will of course have a bird in it, in past years he has used a snow man, snow woman and holiday lights. Wonder what it will be this year? All you need to bring to this class is your drawing pencils (see material list below), and your patience! Robert will be su...

Upcoming Art classes & workshops... Individual attention. Creative exploration. In each class, Robert lets students work at their own level, while encouraging them to expand their skills and problem-solve creatively, so every student comes away with a growing confidence in his or her artistic abilities . Robert’s classes are for adults and teens. To ensure a creative environment with individual instruction, each class is limited to 10 students. Have a group of artists interested in taking a class? Please contact Robert for information about forming your group class. Drawing classes… Designed to be taken successively, the drawing classes are formed around lessons that build on each other, allowing students to develop confidence along the way. Students start with a fundamental course where they learn to see shapes, understand value and create three-dimensional drawings on a two-dimensional surface. Subseque...

  My latest audiobook fix... The Snowman by Jo Nesbø My rating: 4 of 5 stars Great read (Listen)! The story kept me glued to my easel working. I had my suspicions of who the snowman was but didn't feel like I knew for sure so I was happy to find out that it was indeed the person who I thought it was at the end. This was my first Jo Nesbo novel and will look into some of the other stories by this author. The narrator was Robin Sachs on my audiobook edition, I enjoyed the narrator as well. View all my reviews

Work in Progress… “Lark Sparrow (Temporary Title),” Oil on ½” prepared maple panel, 8 x 16. I finished blocking in the first layer of color on this one late last week! I am happy with where everything is at on this painting so far but will be adding some more visual texture using different tones in the background sky. I was excited to see the same colors used for the patch of reddish brown on the Sparrows cheek and the highlighted rust on the barbed wire. That’s the type of thing that gets me excited about a painting. The reference for this came from my visit to the Woolaroc Museum in Oklahoma which has a barbed wire display. Now that I find myself painting it I wish that I had paid more attention to the different kinds of barbed wire along with their history. A Lark Sparrow is a large sparrow, it has a long tail with white corners, it’s under parts are whitish with a large dark spot in the center of the breast. Other than the striking face pattern there isn’t...

Color mapping, Part 2 My road to how I taught myself color theory and how to mix paint . So awhile back I started writing about my process of finding and mixing color, which I call “color mapping.” Now that I am teaching and find myself explaining my color mixing  process almost on a daily basis to my students I thought I should start sharing it here as well. First off as I mentioned in the Munsell posting , I basically taught myself color theory by reading several different books, each one teaching me something different. The most important thing that I learned right off the bat was that we as artists have to learn to work within the limitations of our materials. With that said the book by Michael Wilcox “Blue and Yellow Don’t Make Green” showed and explained to me the beginning of my understanding of color theory. As you well maybe know the light that reaches earth is made up of several different electromagnetic wave lengths. The ones that we are interested ...