Dan Grossmann
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I have no formal training in painting. My art is not philosophical or political. I am not trying to make any kind of statement with my paintings other than to somehow express my deep gratitude to God for the beautiful Creation all around us. To those who see my paintings, may my efforts in some small way stir in your hearts a renewed appreciation for the beauty of the land where we are blessed to live.
After high school, I attended a local two year community college where I majored in commercial art. I served in the Navy for the next four years and then for the next 25 or so years worked as an illustrator. Most of those years I was a self employed freelance artist. I worked primarily for educational and Christian publishers on a wide range of products. During those years I painted when I had could, but time spent painting was hard to come by. By the mid ninties the publishing industry was changing due to technology and the general economy. It was becoming more difficult to keep a steady flow of freelance art assignments and I was forced to take a job at a local factory to help pay the bills. I then was able to take the state job that I have now retired from. After a couple of years with the state job, I decided to no longer continue with my illustration commissions. This allowed me to have more time to pursue my love for painting. Now that I am retired from my state job, I intend to devote the rest of my days trying to capture the beauty of the Creation all around us with brush, paint and canvas. My medium of choice is oil on canvas. On larger complex works I usually start a painting with a monochromatic underpainting and then work in detail and color in layers and glazes. On smaller canvases I tend to take a more direct approach but I will layer if needed. The paintings on display as part of Contrasting Forms are landscapes inspired by several places that I have been to in the last couple of years. These paintings depict scenes from the windswept red hills of southern Kansas, to mountain streams of North Carolina, to the rugged peaks of Wyoming's Snowy Range, to colorful rocky shut-ins of southeastern Missouri and a couple from beautiful Illinois! |
