At the ripe old age of eight years old, I decided to become a “professional artist.” My childhood fascination with the images of the early golden-age illustrators greatly influenced my yearning to share the strong imagery of my own lifetime of incomparable outdoor adventures. At nine I learned to paint with oils, acrylics, pastels and other media. While attending high school I was blessed to have an excellent art instructor, and at thirteen I was noticed by Utah State University’s (USU) renowned art program and attended advanced placement classes where I learned, developed my skills, and later studied commercial art from many of our modern-day masters while on art and football scholarships. During my sophomore year agents from Los Angeles approached to represent me in commercial art. Thus, while attending USU, I was actively illustrating for the entertainment, editorial, and advertising industries while also student teaching illustration and design. My professors then encouraged me to leave USU to illustrate full time, which I did for the major entertainment studios, ad agencies and editorial publishers for many years… until the advent of the computer and digital art. At that time, I took my talents to the Government sector working on many classified projects for several years. I was fortunate to retire early and have since pursued the fine arts. As a member of the New York Society of Illustrators, Oil Painters of America, American Impressionist Society, and other Plein Air organizations, I have received recognition for both my illustrations and fine art, with numerous awards ranging from gold medals, best of shows, blue ribbons, and peoples or artist choices at various design conferences, shows, and plein air events.
My artwork naturally gravitates to a representational genre of landscape, western and wildlife imagery as I respond to our western environment with its special aspects of form, light and atmosphere where I readily find myself creating new images and compositions of our familiar western scenery so revered by our early painters, reaffirming their dignity with fresh insight and my own creative ingenuity. I paint because I desire to share my unique experiences, vision, and perspective with the audience in a manner that invokes an emotional connection. I feel that successful art resonates with the viewer on an emotional level while retaining the strong foundational principles of sound design, composition, value, color and accurate draftsmanship. For me painting is an extremely passionate experience where light is everything and well-executed artwork displays a creative use of light to communicate the spirit and emotion that I feel with the viewer.
Currently I reside in Southwest Idaho where I continue to observe, study, learn, and create as I dedicate my time to the fine art of painting landscapes, wildlife, and western subjects in a variety of medias. You can find my work in many permanent and private collections at USU, the Smithsonian, The US Department of Energy, The Idaho State Capitol, the Supreme Court, Los Angeles Times, Sierra Club, Mule Deer Foundation, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Vincent Price, David B. Height, Ted Turner, and others. I invite you to view some of my work at daveenglishstudios.com