Featured Artist David Drain

Abstract painter David Drain uses a fascinating mix of media to create spontaneous, minimalist art. Visit his website to view more of his work.

 

 

Artmaking has brought me to a path of discovery and delight. I strive daily to reach a level of creativity and individual style which is unique. And the journey continues. I am often surprised and excited by what happens, what unfolds along the way in making my art, my abstract paintings. My style of working is somewhat minimalistic, reducing, combining elements in creating images which have a lightness and depth and hopefully impact.

 

 

I have been working full-time as an artist since 2016, exhibiting in European galleries in group and solo exhibitions since 2017. I see myself as an emerging artist. A substantial percentage of earnings from sales of my artworks will continue to be directly donated to humanitarian charities.

 

 

My artworks reflect a transformational period for me, representing an intense phase of letting go and completely changing direction after a lengthy and absorbing career in global business. I grew up in the beautiful Southern Uplands in Scotland and as a teenager, one of my biggest wishes was to go to art school. That wish remained unfulfilled. And now, many years later, artmaking is my life. I’m closing the gap.

 

 

Paintings have personal meanings for both the viewer and the artist. As an artist, I am continuously attempting to reduce, to simplify my abstract paintings. And thereby, perhaps to enable the viewer a more meditative approach to seeing, observing, enjoying, to being with a painting. 

 

 

My studio is in my home, which makes it possible for me to paint whenever I want. I paint exclusively abstract. And I hardly ever use brushes. I never work on an easel, almost always on the floor, which makes movement much freer and more expressive and flowing. While applying the ink and acrylic, I alternate between free, spontaneous and controlled movements and actions.

 

 

The results are often stunning, rich in nuance. Occasionally I get lost. Other times the spontaneous play just takes over and reveals magical results, shapes, forms, interactions, subtle surface gradations. One of the main challenges in applying this approach is finding the appropriate balance between playfully discovering and modulation and control. This is a skill which I continue to refine here in my studio.  

 

 

I am always striving to create a sense of dynamic tension embodied in the composition. This in turn can translate into emotion, which again is unique and individual for every viewer and potentially also changing, deepening over time, if the viewer allows this. 

 

 

Since starting my artistic journey, I have playfully discovered techniques of combining finely layered textures using materials such as marble paste, sand, and iron filings. I then apply ink and acrylics using vastly differing actions and approaches, tools and movements. The resulting fields of colour are intensely subtle and rich in fine gradations, and I build on this.

 

 

Step by step, I explore, seek, discover, refine—always with the intention of an unfolding sense of meaning in what emerges, in what I experience as intriguing and compelling.

 

David Drain invites you to follow on Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn.

 

 

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