“I try to portray the essence of the unspoiled land and to create a scene as intimate and personal to the viewer as possible.”
Explore the landscapes of one of our currently featured artists, David Sites, an artist based in Bryan/College Station whose award-winning pieces have been featured in dozens of exhibitions across the nation.
Originally from York, Pennsylvania, David graduated from the York Academy of the Arts in 1978 before finding work in the outdoor advertising industry as a traveling billboard pictorial artist. As a billboard artist, David would hand paint ‘canvases’ 14 feet by 48 feet in size, massive projects that would often take three or more full days to complete. Each final product was a feat of technical skill as he created hyper-realistic images and text that left nothing to interpretation.
This artistic skill is put to a different test when painting his suggestive landscapes, artwork that stands in stark contrast to the straightforward and clear-cut nature of his previous work. Relying on his intuitive senses, memory, and imagination in the process, David streaks these canvases with long brushes of color that fuse into one another, allowing purples, blues, and reds to bleed into orange and greys. Though he makes sure to avoid definitive shapes and figures, it is possible for the mind to capture how the darker colors that gather in the midline of the canvas form a vague horizon, or how a splash of color can imitate foliage. The abstract nature of such a landscape encourages the audience to draw their own conclusions about the subject matter, creating an interactive viewing experience that is slightly different for each person who sees it.
We here at the SEAD Gallery are honored to welcome back David Sites as he is featured in a three-part, multi-artist exhibition with Anna Swanson and Cynthie Hanks. This collective exhibition will be on display until November 10th, so we invite you to join us at the gallery for an opportunity to create your own interpretation about David’s subject matter.
