Born in Fremont, Nebraska on Jan. 21, 1912, Robert Holdeman moved to Long Beach, CA with his family at age seven. In 1929, he graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School where his art studies were begun under Ruth Burdick. He continued his studies at Los Angeles Jr. College and won a scholarship to Chouinard Art School.

During the 1930s, he worked in the animated cartoon business and at Disney Studios. In 1954 he settled in San Francisco and taught at the California College of Arts and Crafts and California School of Fine Art.

He was active in the San Francisco Bay area as an artist, surveyor, and landscape architect until his demise on May 6, 1994. His watercolors vary from abstractions to realism.