Featured Artist David Chestnutt

Toronto artist David Chestnutt creates graphic artwork that is bold, architectural and visually stunning. Check out his website to see more of his work.

 

 

As far back as I can remember, Art and creating has been my central motivation. I was fortunate to grow up in a city where students with artistic aptitude were streamed into art classes at quite an early age. From then on I was totally hooked.

 

 

Drawing, painting and illustrating skills gave me a career in graphic design, illustration and architectural design for quite a number of years.

 

 

All through that period I worked on paintings, mostly in acrylic, and serigraphs, always working in a graphic, hard-edged, geometric vernacular.

 

 

I was always an enthusiastic visitor to major galleries and collections and found this a profound inspiration for my own direction in painting.

 

 

I have always been fascinated with geometric shapes and patterns, squares, circles and triangles. I like working with patterns or just with the purity of the shape or the image; almost architectural in approach.

The manifestation of color is of prime importance to me; of how one hue complements or changes the appearance of the one to which it is placed next to.

 

 

I often work in primary colors and black is an all time favorite as it punches its way through the composition.

 

 

Lately I have been working on a series of drawings in ink line. I scan them into a computer and color them digitally. These images are prepared for giclee prints and can range in size up to 34 x 44 inches. I have found this allows for considerable experimentation with colors and gradients.

 

 

I have produced a whole series of pencil and ink drawings, which have also been digitized and are printed in the same sizes. The series are called Decline and Fall and Architectonic.

 

 

I have always been drawn, no pun intended, to working in an abstract, non objective way. All my inspiration, whether it be painting, architecture or landscape I turn into graphic shapes and images, or, the geometry of Art and Life.

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