Robert R. Bradshaw was born in Midland Michigan in 1930. He graduated from the Chicago Art Institute and attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago. After finishing his studies, he worked briefly for an art studio before enlisting in the Navy, ending up in the Korean War. After that and a 15 year career at an interior design firm in Boston, MA, he settled in San Francisco where he opened a home furnishings store. After selling the business in 1985, Robert moved to Carmel and belonged to the Carmel Art Association for 8 years then in 2003 moved to Palm Springs where he currently resides and works from his home studio He has been represented by J. Howell Fine Art since 2004 and in Palm Springs by The Interior Designer Accoutrements, is a member of the Artist Council of the Palm Springs Art Museum and has won numerous awards from the city of Palm Springs as well as the Palm Springs Art Museum.

“I didn’t want to do watercolors, I didn’t want to do oils, I didn’t want to do any straight discipline.” Bradshaw’s work is unique and the technique consists of applying layers of colored acrylic inks to illustration board, which has been sanded and distressed then working from dark to light. Having inked the board to an almost black color, he then draws up the image and begins removing the black using the same ink, but with a brush and picking up the old ink with a paper napkin. The process reveals colors and texture around and to the image resulting in a rich residue left in the tooth of the board. The final process entails adding layers of clear and opaque acrylic ink washes and the either oil or prismacolor pencils for fine details.