Robin Cole

Robin Cole, born in Denver, Colorado in 1985, is a painter, draftswoman, and encaustic artist working in the tradition of realism. Though related to the familiar genres of landscape painting and portraiture, her work explores a slightly unusual, more nuanced and closely experienced relationship with nature that is at once otherworldly and scientific.

Cole received her BA in English at Colorado College as a Boettcher Foundation scholar before making a shift in her studies and career to pursue fine art. She later completed the post-baccalaureate program in Studio Art at the Burren College of Art in County Clare, Ireland, and went on to earn a Master’s of Fine Art in Drawing from the Laguna College of Art and Design (LCAD) in 2013. These pursuits were supported and informed by a variety of artist residencies including the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and Spiro Arts. Following completion of her MFA, Cole stayed on for five years as faculty at LCAD, where she was able to utilize both her literary and artistic backgrounds to teach a variety of undergraduate drawing and graduate writing courses. She is member of Oil Painters of America, and a Signature Member of Portrait Society of America. In 2018, Cole received a second artist grant from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation in support of her current work, as a follow-up to her initial grant in 2012 for her unique encaustic drawings. In spring of the following year, Cole returned to her native Colorado with her family; she now works and teaches at her home studio in Arvada, the Art Students League of Denver, and online at