BA(Hons) GAvA
Illustrator & Transport Artist
Robert is from Leicester and after attending Gateway Boys Grammar School, undertook a Foundation Course at Loughborough College of Art & Design and then a Degree in Graphic Design and Illustration at Leeds Polytechnic, graduating in 1983.
After initially working in industry for the Shepherd Building Group in York, Robert then joined Eikon Ltd in Leicester becoming the Illustration Manager. At the time Eikon was the largest studio in the East Midlands specialising in Design, Visualisation and Illustration. Major clients included British Steel, Wrangler, Nabisco, Palitoy, Walkers Crisps, Boots, Thorntons, Reeves and Winsor and Newton.
In 2007, Robert, with his brother David, formed CalowCraddock Ltd, a studio with expertise in illustration, concept visuals, storyboards and graphic design for local and national clients.
Specialist areas are English Language Teaching illustration for major publishing houses such as Heinemann and Oxford University Press and architectural work for historical houses such as Chatsworth, Castle Howard and Bolton Abbey.
A passionate interest in transport and particularly aviation encouraged Robert to join the Guild of Aviation Artists in 2003. In 2004 his painting ‘Going Solo’ of a Hawker Hurricane won the Arthur Gibson award for the best painting by a Friend exhibiting for the first time. Election to Associate followed in 2007 and Full Member in 2013.From 2011 Robert and his brother David also became Editors of the GAvA magazine ‘Quarterly News’.
Robert’s work has been exhibited at many galleries locally and nationally including RAF Cosford, BAC 100 Exhibition Bristol, Midland Air Museum, and the Mall Galleries, London.Robert also has a painting of a Hawker Hurricane hung at the RAF Club Piccadilly in London, which was presented by the Hawker Association and can be seen next to a bust of the aircraft’s designer, Sir Sidney Camm.
Outside the commercial art world, Robert is very active in the East Midlands Classical Music scene as a Clarinettist and arranger with several Orchestras, and in particular Orchestra Manager of Leicester’s Bardi Symphony Orchestra.