John Van Dreal
Field Burning, Mid-Valley
2023 oil on panel 24" x 30" ( 30" x 35 3/4" framed) Available
Distant Shoreline-Autumn
2014 oil on canvas 9" x 12" (15 1/2" x 18 3/4" framed) Available
Statement
My artistic style and method, as well as my philosophy about art, are founded in my admiration for Northern European realism, American realism, and Tonalism. As a craftsman, I build surface and texture through layered oil painting combined with thin applications of translucent glazing. I have found that such an approach allows me to capture light as well as render form that has an intrinsic identity and offers the viewer a subtle expression of beauty as it is found in landscape, still life, and figure. I study and report form by concurrently sketching and painting as
I move a work forward to completion. Using this method, combined with traditional aesthetic principles, allows me to create contemporary images that are luminous, tonal, evocative, and spiritual and that connect with the viewer on a personal level. By indulging in form and the aesthetic, I attempt to paint the denominators most common to human beings in their search for the beautiful and sublime. Thus I hope my art offers a connection to good things.
