Born in 1881 in Washington, D.C., C. Waldo Love grew up in London, Berkely and San Francisco, California. He first studied art in 1900 in Denver with Henry Read at the Students School of Art. He won a scholarship to study at the Art Students Leage in New York. He later studied in Paris at the Académie Julian and the Académie de la Le Grande Chaumiere. Love worked as a commercial artist for ad agencies and magazines following his return to Denver in 1905. He is a founding member of the Denver Artists Guild and worked on several government commissions during the Great Depression. He was a staff artist for the Denver Museum of Natural History (presently the Denver Museum of Nature & Science).