Wollondilly Cascades

‘What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn’t have any doubt – it is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn’t want to go anywhere else.‘ Anon

I admit that I find water endlessly fascinating – rivers, lakes, the ocean, et alia. ….. doesn’t really matter which, I tend to get drawn to it.

So, not only do I find it peaceful and stimulating at the same time, the water also provides a variety of visual delights to enliven the painting. As we grow up, we tend to get pushed down a certain path of seeing things the same as everyone else, and not as they are. The sky ain’t necessarily blue (ok, in this case there is quite a lot of blue in it), and there are variations of colour temperature of blues in there, and some purples and rosy bits as well. To top it off, the sky reflects the water AND vice versa, as well as every other element in the vista.

This one, as always was started outdoors next to the river, and some subsequent layering was done in the studio as the painting tends to go in a direction of its own – sometimes I feel that I am just a passenger.

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Hello, and welcome to my Bluethumb portal. I’m Jean David, and I am an artist and art teacher.

I have had a passion for painting and drawing all my life. These days, I will generally paint and draw anything that will be still enough for long enough to let me! I prefer to paint directly (ie with the actual subject matter in front of me, rather than a photo) either in the studio or out in the elements ‘en plein air’.

To me, a well executed drawing or painting (mine or anyone else’s) can convey a truth more eloquently, an emotion or a feeling of human experience more truthfully than any other form of expression. I can still remember the first time I saw a Leonardo drawing in a text book – I was literally transfixed at how the world could be viewed in a different way other than how I had been brought up. To me, the Leonardo drawings were able to get directly to the heart of the matter, and disregard what he could not be bothered to ‘see’.

Since my decision to become a full time artist some twenty something years ago, I have tirelessly pursued a goal to be able to just do it better. This has inevitable involved me going through a number of stages and phases, all of which have helped me acquire more experience and skills as I moved forward.

It has long been touted that in order for an artist to develop, he/she needs to travel and experience different environments, so the journey is a physical one as well, and my wife (Isix) and I have lived in Australia, England, Wales, The Netherlands , Hong Kong and France, taking in many other countries along the way, including Spain, Portugal, Italy, Scotland, Germany, Croatia, Russia, Sweden, Crete, Fiji, New Caledonia.