“The emotion that a landscape creates is my inspiration for what and how I paint.” -David Sites
David Sites first showed with the SEAD Gallery in 2013 for a solo exhibition. We are happy to see his expressive, abstract works back lining the walls of the SEAD Gallery.
David’s roots begin in a lost art: billboard painting. While we now think of billboards as being printed on larger poster sheets or vinyls that are affixed to the face of the sign, billboards were once hand painted with great craftsmanship. A giant work of art, he painted these billboards measuring 14’ x 48’, requiring talent and tremendous ability.
In this job, he was able to travel, where he “observed the ever-changing landscapes” as it varied from sunrise to sunset and into different seasons. Each of the seasons and each of the days had its own feeling and emotion. He was influenced by the “fleeting clouds” and the atmospheres that they would create. Looking at Sites’s work, you can see the influences of nature in the forms and colors that so beautifully cover the canvas.
To make these works, David starts with colorful gestured strokes, working from a palette of only five colors. The colors flow and mix as he adds random splashes of color to form a more abstract work. That’s when David’s imagination and intuition comes into play. He adds more and takes it away, scrapes and blends until his painting reaches perfection.
These paintings invite you into their landscapes. Sites calls them “suggestive landscapes”, as you the viewer can use your own imagination to suggest the forms and shapes that make up the horizon.
Come explore these landscapes with us during Retrospective at the SEAD Gallery, on display until March 10th.
