Art by David Price

A Little History

I was born in Texas in 1940 to parents who married with the dream that he would write and she would paint. Six children later, many compromises were made. As a child I was sure that I would act or write, however, when I was 19, my brother died, leaving me his art materials. I quickly discovered sculpture and painting and also a creative state of being that changed my direction in life.

I studied painting and sculpture at UT Austin in the 60’s, without getting a good sense of what my personal style and process would be, but then in 1973 I went to Florence to study in the Cobra tradition. My teacher had studied with several of the Cobra “personages” and he had a way of teaching that opened me up and focused me. I left there painting from a level of myself that I hadn’t been in touch with before and I have continued to develop and evolve in that approach. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done for my creativity and I am eternally grateful to my teacher, Roberto Ciabani.

In 1992 I moved to France with my wife and three children, bought an old house and spent over a decade turning it from a sow’s ear into a silk purse. It is now a beautiful Bed and Breakfast where my paintings are on show, chosen and beautifully hung by Cynthia, my lovely wife .

Process and Meaning

After more than 40 years of painting, I know that there are two trends in my work. If I’m in the flow, something may pop out of me that is like a graceful dance move and that is fairly simple on canvas, though quite impossible to produce at will. The other trend is more complex, a bit more fraught, a bit more “expressionist”, but in the end, still joyous. These paintings are very much done the way I’ve lived my life, a kind of “leap before you look” modus operandi. I jump in and soon find I’ve created an emergency that I have to find a solution to on the fly, using as it were, some fancy footwork. Those paintings have more layers, more struggle, but the resolution is often accomplished decisively by a moment of extremely intense, almost ferocious painting that smelts the whole together. That moment comes, but it cannot be made to come.

And what do these paintings mean? I think they refer to inner states. All artists are in the business of giving esthetic form to a part of themselves that for whatever reason can’t find enough expression in their daily lives. In my case, what needs expression seems to be joyous adventure, which I am trying to put into color and form. Although in extreme close-up, my work often looks like beautiful compost, suggesting natural processes, the whole always refers to intangibles like joy and enjoyment, fun, courage, daring, personal power, sensuality, intuition, sensitivity, inspiration, hope, exhilaration, decisiveness, adventure, among other things, which is why they are all called “Untitled”, because I don’t want to confine these intangibles in a strait-jacket. Crossing borders and suddenly leaping from one reality to another is exciting and fun for me. That experience is often part of the process in the making of a painting; I like seeing the recorded traces of that in two dimensions. When I stare at one of the successful works I experience a pleasure of recognition of things in me that the world would never see except in combinations of colors, forms and gestures that act out these inner states. The paintings bear a resemblance to jazz, dance, or music, and maybe even to some extent, drama.

David Price