"Bringing the Museum to You"

By permission of the artist, The Cyber Art Show is pleased to feature the first of two 12-piece Exhibitions of works by American contemporary Impressionist painter Derek Davis (born 1963 in Billings, Montana).
 

Derek Davis is a second-generation artist for which painting is a process of self discovery and a means of expressing appreciation of the world around him. Searching for the poetry of the moment and reaching to express that with paint is sincerely gratifying and challenging to Derek. Although self taught, he has learned from many artists including his parents, Rink and Marilyn, and other artists such as Orlin Helgoe, Ivan Morrison, Leroy Greene, Andrew Wyeth, N.C. Wyeth, Jeanne Dobie, Edgar Whitney, Edgar Payne, Richard Schmid, Tony Couch, Skip Lawrence, Charles Reid, Betty Edwards, Ted Goerschner, Robert Henri, Nicolai Fechin and Francis Lee Jaques.
 

As a child in his father's studio, Derek was exposed to a variety of art and artists. Later in life, his mother's forays outside with an easel at her side showed him about the possibility of outdoor painting. These influences and his brother Brett introducing him to the wonder of the outdoors combined to direct his life's choices.  At the age of nineteen, Derek decided to learn to draw and paint.

 

While working and raising a family and with books as his constant companions, Derek spent 25 years developing his drawing and then painting skills. He was joyfully oblivious to the existing commercial art world and worked diligently in private to grow as an artist.  He worked in the traditional manner of sketching from life and painting from these sketches in the studio. During this "school" period, Derek was able to study the intricacies of painting including design, composition and color usage.
 

In 2007, he decided it was time to begin to quietly emerge from this self imposed time of learning. On a chance encounter during his first showing of works, he met Joe Paquet. This encounter and the conversations that would follow led to Derek choosing to focus on painting on location outdoors. Still having occasional studio time for larger works, figure/portrait painting and still-lifes, Derek finds the challenges and joys of outdoor painting to be an exhilarating painting experience.     

 

Derek paints primarily in oil or watercolor from life and is an active teacher at his studio in St. Paul, Mn. as well as workshops abroad. He is a former president and member of the Outdoor Painters of Minnesota as well as a member of the American Impressionist Society.