Martin Caulkin RI (1945 - 2025)

Statement

We are sad to announce the passing of Martin Caulkin RI (1945-2025) on the 12 November.

Martin was born in Birmingham, he studied Graphics and Illustration in the West Midlands at Birmingham College of Arts and Crafts. On completing his studies in 1965, Martin moved to London to teach art at The Heatherley School of Art. In the 70’s, he worked as a freelance illustrator and began painting, becoming a professional artist. He was elected as an RI Member in 1983 also becoming a member of the Royal Birmingham Society.

In the late seventies, Martin’s contemporary paintings started to be published in print form and distributed successfully worldwide. This allowed him to move from London to rural Worcestershire, a move which prompted a shift away from figurative painting to an intensely personal artistic treatment of landscape. Many of his landscapes feature Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire scenes.

The Independent newspaper in a review of the Royal Academy(RA) Summer Show said, 'Martin Caulkin is exceptional. He has brilliantly mastered the presentation of incongruous modernity in a timeless landscape.'

Martin was primarily a Watercolour Painter but also worked in oils, acrylics, and printmaking (etchings, monoprints). “I have used watercolour as my main medium to express the effect of light and atmosphere through landscape; my main preoccupation being the passage of time, transience and evocation of mood. When using watercolour, I build up the work in washes and glazes, often over a carefully worked out drawing. I am very deliberate about positioning objects, often working it out on tracing paper first. This allows me to get the positioning and dynamics first and releases me to be free in the painting, being open to what the washes reveal.”

An award-winning painter, Martin has featured in numerous art books and in prestigious exhibitions including the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions, Vancouver Expo, Canada and in the Fry Museums of Modern Art, USA.

Martin Caulkin's contemporary paintings have been selected for various art competitions including the Singer and Friedlander/Sunday Times Competition. They are also in art collections in the USA, Canada, Australia, Holland and the UK. He was represented by Red Rag Gallery in Stow-on-the-Wold and Bath.