Studio of Austin-based artist Robert Grantham, fusing Copperplate & Blackletter calligraphy with layered acrylic painting on canvas, cardboard, and reclaimed materials.
Detail from a layered calligraphic abstract piece. Gold, ultramarine, and vermilion pulling their weight.
A selection of original paintings, calligraphic abstractions, and cardboard calligraphy pieces. For full inventory and pricing, get in touch below.
Layered gestural script, veils of ultramarine and vermilion, and magnolia forms emerging from beneath— a reflection on memory, Southern Gothic landscapes, and getting back up again.
Original available · Prints on request
Street-level calligraphy on found material—elevating what’s thrown away into something worth framing.
Original available · Student pricing available
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Aerial abstraction suggestive of drifting ice and quiet fracture lines—painted as a meditation on distance, danger, and the possibility of new currents.
Original available
“Fear devours justice.” A piece dedicated to the victims of the Bamberg and Würzburg witch trials— flames, script, and fragments of memory in layered red and gold.
Original available · Museum-series concept
Commission a custom piece—anything from intimate cardboard calligraphy panels to large-scale canvases for homes, offices, or public spaces.
Payment plans are always on the table. A modest down payment can hold a piece or reserve a commission slot.
Start a commission request
Sketches, color tests, and underpaintings—where the structure of each commission begins.
Every piece moves through distinct stages—ground layers, blocking, glazing, and final calligraphic work. Nothing is accidental; even the chaos is designed.
Transparent and semi-opaque layers establish the base mood—often ultramarine, vermilion, or earth tones broken with titanium white. This is where the “weather” of the piece is set.
Major shapes and value masses are mapped in. Sometimes it reads like an aerial map; sometimes like a fractured page of script. This is the skeleton underneath the surface.
Thin veils of color, scumbling, and selective opacity build depth. Edges soften or sharpen. Areas of rest are carved out next to areas of intense activity.
Copperplate, Blackletter, and improvised scripts are laid into the painting—sometimes legible, sometimes almost lost. Gold and high-contrast accents are reserved for the final decisions.
Robert Grantham is an Austin-based expressive calligrapher, painter, and historian. His work braids together formal scripts, street-level materials, and layered color to explore themes of memory, survival, and the quiet anger of people written out of the official story.
With a background in history and years spent studying both traditional calligraphy and contemporary abstraction, Robert’s studio practice treats each painting as both an artwork and an archival document—an artifact of a specific person, moment, or place.
Pieces range from intimate, hand-lettered cardboard panels to larger canvases suitable for homes, galleries, offices, and public settings.
To inquire about available work, request a price list, or start a commission, reach out using one of the options below.
Payment plans are available on originals and commissions. A modest down payment can reserve a piece while we work out the rest.