Painting the Places We Love

 

Why paint places we love?

 

Nature provides us all with formative experiences.  We naturally connect with the special places in our lives.  We carry the images of these special places in our hearts and minds.  We link fond memories throughout our lives to the beautiful areas that remind us of those memories.  We can’t always be in these places, but we love to rekindle those memories by revisiting those special places every chance we get.  Art can celebrate those beloved places and connect us with them.

 

Places I love…

 

For me, growing up in New Hampshire, there was Canobie Lake, Newfound Lake (Camp Wulamat!), the White Mountains, Franconia Notch (with the Old Man…may he rest in peace/pieces), and many more places.  Later, in Oklahoma, it was the golden grasses of the rolling prairies.  In Michigan, it was the Huron River, the architecture of Michigan Law School, snow-covered trees in the winter, and beautiful lakes in the summer.  Now, in southern California, it’s the radiant sunsets, beautiful beaches, golden mountains, and historic places like Mission San Juan Capistrano.  I love to find beauty in places I live and visit.  The tranquility of nature, the endless variation of color and light, the magnitude of distance and perspective of the mountains fading into the distant blue haze, and the way the golden hills come to a glowing line as the sun lights up the grasses along the tops of the ridge lines.  I’ve always been inspired by nature, and I want to share these experiences with you.

 

Translated to canvas…

 

My art strives to capture these moments of appreciation of nature’s beauty and share them with others (like you!) who appreciate them as much as I do.  I am driven to paint because cameras can’t capture the way a scene feels to me.  My paintings are the result of being moved by a scene (or certain aspects of it) and emphasizing those aspects to share them with you.  If I feel the warmth and tranquility of a dawn on the Newport Back Bay, my painting should convey that warmth and tranquility to you.  I want you not just to see what I saw, but feel what I felt.  Painting places we love means always having those feelings on our walls to revisit any time we like.

 

“Dave,

Thanks for sharing your talent with us.  ‘Grand Canal at Night’ is a wonderful addition to our home and a lovely reminder of our own visit to this Venice many years ago.  You have perfectly captured the romance of this magnificent, yet enigmatic city.

Peter”