David Caldwell RP

David Caldwell

David Caldwell was born in Helensburgh in the West of Scotland in 1977. He studied at the Glasgow School of Art (1994-98) and the Royal Drawing School (2003-05). He has won several awards and residencies including the Royal Society of Portrait Painters’ own Bulldog Bursary and The Founder’s Purchase Prize at the ING Discerning Eye (adjudged by the late Brian Sewell).

He has twice been short-listed for the BP Portrait Awards, most recently in 2013 when he displayed 77 miniature portraits at the National Portrait Gallery.

In recent years David has been short-listed for various other major awards including the Seven Investments Management ‘Conversations’ Prize, the Ruth Borchard Self-portrait Prize, the Threadneedle Figurative Art Prize, the Lynn Painter-Stainers Award and the W. Gordon Smith Award. David lives and works as an artist and portrait painter in Glasgow.

Image: David Caldwell, Self-Portrait

The Smallwood Architects Prize, 2019

RP Member David Caldwell was awarded The Smallwood Architects Prize by the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 2019. 

This prize is for a portrait in which architectural or interior features play an important part

Direct engagement with his sitters is a key component to Caldwell‘s work. 'A portrait is not only about achieving a likeness but also about capturing the sitter’s individual energetic presence', says the artist.

Through his paintings, he aims to translate his experience of looking. Caldwell explains, 'I want my paintings to suggest the sensation of stereoscopic vision, as the camera lens cannot, and to amalgamate the layers of looking – indeed the layers of time – into one image. Ultimately I would like my work to express the sensation of having been there, of having stood in my shoes.'

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