26
oil color
I
have lived in the Seattle area for the past
fifteen years and consider it my home.
There is no place on earth I'd rather live.
Even when I was a kid living in South Bend,
Indiana, Seattle seemed like the coolest place
on the whole planet. When I finally moved
here, I was not disappointed.
For me, the Puget Sound is both legend-
ary and magical. The vegetation, the fog, the
rain--as well as the summer months of sun,
blue-skies and radiant light have captured
my imagination, especially the light. This is
what enters my paintings in unusual ways.
Transformations of light are unfolding
around us every moment of the day. It is like
a perpetual kaleidoscope of luminosity and
color. From water to snow to rain and fog,
every kind of light is possible in Seattle.
I was trained as a graphic artist and was
eventually hired as a creative director in
advertising. Fifteen years of that kind of
work benefited me when I finally decided to
go entirely into the fine arts. That training
taught me how to perform tasks quickly and
to be practical, as well as how to make deci-
sions about composition and all those nitty-
gritty logistical aspects of making art useful.
During that time I also continued to seek
out teachers who could help me build my
drawing and painting skills. I still do. Part of
that education included courses in art his-
tory at Oxford University and extended
field studies across Europe, in Mexico City,
the U.S. and Canada.
It was the academic context that nally
helped put the creative side of my career to-
gether with the intellectual side. A cohesive
vision about art and artistic endeavor began
to coalesce and new work began to emerge.
It was as if the right and left sides of my
brain finally found each other and discov-
ered they were the best of friends.
I am sure I will not reach my mature style
for quite some time. I am still trying to learn
how to see, and at the same time to become
familiar with my medium through experi-
mentation. I like painting what I see because
it is immediate, and I am pretty impatient.
For years I worked only in acrylic. It was
easy to learn to love them because when I
had a project that needed to get to a client
in a hurry, I could ship it an hour after I'd
finished. It was great. Some people complain
bitterly about how fast acrylic paint dries.
However, I met a brilliant artist in Bellevue
who paints in acrylics and loves them even
more than I do. It is amazing to see him
with a brush in one hand and a hairdryer in
the other. For him, acrylic paint doesn t dry
fast enough. He inspires me.
Now I work in both acrylic and oil. I can't
say which I like more. One medium has
advantages the other lacks. I am amazed at
how much acrylic paint has developed
in the last twenty years. Daniel Smith has
made some of the very finest acrylic paints
I've ever worked with, and I have worked
with them all. I wholeheartedly recommend
to anyone to give acrylic paint a serious try,
especially with the Daniel Smith products.
They are the finest.
I can't say I
have a favorite
artist, but the
greatest painter
of the twenti-
eth century, in
my opinion, is
Salvador Dali
--and one of my
all time favorites
is Diego Rivera.
I am in awe
of work that
withstands the
ravages of time and passing trends. Great art
will survive. I love art that has been tried-on,
had its tires kicked, has been driven around
the block a couple times, and has survived a
little bit of abuse. It seems to make it more
human, and I like that.
"Flower for Jessica," Daniel Rice, Acrylic & Oil on Canvas, 10" x 10"
Daniel Rice A Cohesive Vision
what's inside
daniel smith original
daniel smith original sets
daniel smith luminescent
sennelier artists
sennelier egg tempera
daler-rowney egg tempera
talens rembrandt
talens amsterdam
sennelier oil sticks
van gogh h2 oil
max grumbacher
r&f encaustics
solvents and oils
mediums and binders
CELEBRATING
30
YEARS
