Sunday, April 10, 2011

Wetlands in Fog


Oil on Panel
8 x 16

Another one of those moody, foggy wetlands paintings. Not much to say about this, hopefully it speaks for itself. I think there are a few more of these in me trying to get out. I'll try to mix in some other things so you won't get bored.

2 comments:

susan griffin said...

David,
I love, love, love your work. Could you post something about your background-school, training, books you learned from ect. I want to be like you when I grow up.
(I'm 53) Ha!

Dave B said...

Thanks a lot Susan. Don't bother growing up, it's overrated. I'm 53 too.

My background, that's boring. Started out at the Fine Art School at Washington University - hated everything about it and left as soon as possible. Went to and eventually graduated from the University of Missouri with an art degree. It was slightly better, but even still I managed to disregard or forget just about everything they taught me.

Books, no one or two stand out as being particularly important to me. On the other hand I read everything. Back in school I remember sitting in the library (spent a lot of time there) and one of my teachers came up behind me. He said, "I didn't know you could read German." I said, "I can't, I'm just looking at the pictures." Normally that would have been a stupid answer even for me, but I really didn't care much about the commentary. I was interested in the images, how they were put together compositionally, how the values were balanced, that kind of thing. I still do that, but now I've got an entire internet of images to look at. I think that's where I learned the most, just from looking. And picking up a nugget here and there.

So there's my advice. Look at everything and look critically. If you like it, why. If not, why not. Then you can get into the hows, whys and wherefores. It's mostly just a matter of doing it. It takes a fair bit of time and practice.