meet Chuck Caplinger
Chuck Caplinger’s professional art career dates back to the 1960s when he worked with Tech Productions and later RCA Service Co., which held the graphics contract with NASA at George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Caplinger worked as an illustrator and art director of the Space Concepts Department, servicing NASA Director Dr. Wernher von Braun’s Research and Development Department.
Returning to Houston, Texas, in late 1965, Caplinger continued to work in the creative field of design, illustration, and art direction. He created his popular series Hollywood Faces and was commissioned to paint portraits of then current stars like Sammy Davis Jr.; actors Sal Mineo, Tom Ewell, Lisa Hartman Black, Bob Crane; comedian Rich Little; and many others.
In 1979 Caplinger relocated to Hollywood, California, to work with film distributor Lone Star Pictures International. In 1987 Caplinger married actress Holgie Forrester and, in 1997, the couple established their new creative base, Desert Art Studio & Gallery, in the Mojave Desert community of Twentynine Palms, California. In their inspiring dome home next to Joshua Tree National Park, he now creates oil paintings of desert landscapes and desert wildlife, commissioned portraits, and murals of the southwest.
Caplinger has also been instrumental in promoting the arts and cultural tourism in Twentynine Palms and throughout the Joshua Tree Gateway Communities, co-founding in 2001 the Morongo Basin Cultural Arts Council and the annual Open Studio Art Tours, now called the Hwy 62 Art Tours.
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Caplinger chaired the Global Mural Conference in 2001. And, in 2004 he co-founded a public arts program for the City of Twentynine Palms–Art in Public Places–and the Public Arts Advisory Committee (PAAC), and is Chair Emeritus.
Chuck Caplinger receives his Chair Emeritus recognition award from members of the Public Arts Advisory Committee, November 4, 2011.
In 2009, Caplinger designed and donated the concept for the City’s iconic 29! sculpture, a 7-1/2-ft. tall by 13-ft. long steel sculpture positioned at the western entrance to downtown Twentynine Palms, and in 2010 created a “29” branding logo for the city.
Caplinger regularly exhibits his works in group and solo exhibitions. A series of his paintings were featured in Southwest Art Magazine, and his Tribute to Marilyn mural was exhibited in the Hollywood Entertainment Museum in Los Angeles. In the fall of 2001, his paintings were featured at the Edward-Dean Museum in Cherry Valley, CA. The exhibit, titled The West—From the Reservation to the Range—A Retrospective also featured the museum’s collection of bronzes by Russell and Remington. His award-winning creations hang in public and private collections around the world, and his historical murals are represented in cities throughout California and Texas.
Currently, Chuck Caplinger is available for portrait, painting, and mural commissions and consultations; one-on-one painting instruction in his studio; and group painting demonstrations.