Dan Spalding--"PORTRAITS"

March 9, 2012 - April 7, 2012

The Art Spirit Gallery is proud to open a show of 30 new oil paintings by Dan Spalding.  The opening reception is on Friday, March 9 from 5-8.  Meet the artist and enjoy an evening of fine art, fine dining and good friends in downtown Coeur d’Alene.  Everyone is welcome!
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Dan will give an informal talk and painting demonstration in the gallery on Saturday, 
March 10, starting at 1:00.
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This show is generously sponsored by The Garnet Café and Syringa Café & Japanese Sushi Bar. We thank Viljo, Autumn and staff for their friendly atmosphere, fine food and their support of the arts in our community.
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A Small Biography of Dan Spalding:

Dan Spalding grew up in Spokane, in a family that owned the largest auto wrecking yard in Eastern Washington. His early interest in drawing was fueled haunting the wrecking yard, where he began to study ideas of structure, motion and the inherent energy within objects. While getting his bachelor’s degree from Gonzaga University, Dan developed a deep love of painting and found a mentor in the iconoclastic northwest abstract painter Robert Gilmore, himself a student of still-life master Walter Murch. It’s a lineage Dan sees revealed more in philosophy than in style.

"It was rare to have someone of Bob Gilmore's stature to learn from, to see the sacrifices first-hand, to see all the things that make up an artist. You gain a great deal of respect for all that has come before not just the masters but the succession of styles. You gauge yourself not only against what’s out there now, but against what has come before. What Bob has given me is less visual and more philosophical. It doesn't deal with technique or subject matter, but with finding your own vision."

Now 48, Dan has spent the last twenty years extending that artistic vision into the worlds of design and music, retrofitting and renovating several downtown buildings with reclaimed materials to create one-of-a-kind restaurants, bars and condominiums, while also playing in several local and regional bands.  As a painter, Dan continues to work at reordering the recognizable, whether in classic portraits or in surprising variations of familiar forms, such as flowers, guitars and outboard motors.

"I suppose I'm drawn to the volume of certain forms. I like to work large, to see the texture and tone, the brush strokes, the nuanced uses of color. I think the expression comes out in those ways, and much of that expressive energy is lost when the piece is polished and overworked. In its fresh state, the work reveals something of its structure, its architecture, how it’s put together. The line is crucial to ones interpretation of this structure and form and is the most direct form of expression. A lot of people can lay down the same color, but each painter’s line is unique." 

Dan's primary focus as a painter remains figure-work, understanding and articulating the human form. He says human subjects make a painting complex but recognizable. "We look at the human form every day and are keenly aware of it. If you don't tell the truth there, people call you on it." Like all of his painting, Dan's figure-work is infused with a deep physicality and a tangible connection between painter and subject. 

"To be completely honest, if you give me a lot of things to look at, and one of them is a woman, chances are, I'll be drawn to the female figure. It's that simple. There is something powerful that can happen between a painter and a subject. I suppose it is about sex, but it is also about a certain energy. It’s palpable. You just don't get that with a melon. And if you do, the other people in the grocery store get sort of upset.