How did you develop your unique style?
David Lussier: I was trained to paint in the style of photo realism during my 4 years of attending art school. I started out doing a lot of portrait and illustration work. I would paint outdoors occasionally during art school with my classmates but found it difficult to do. In the years following school, I ventured outdoors more and more and fell in love with the challenge of painting plein air. I wanted to loosen up and I started to set myself time limits of 2 hours to paint little 6×8 paintings and then I’d give myself the same time limit for 8×10’s and then 9×12’s, on up to 11×14. It forced me to learn to simplify and because I was giving myself a #me limit, I became very aware of how long I would spend on drawing, blocking in and then finishing. I found my rhythm and I became very confident in it.
How do you find inspiration?
David Lussier: I was aware of the work of the Cape Ann painter Emile Gruppe and I started reading his books as a teenager, but I didn’t really understand his use of painterly brushwork until I started venturing outdoors on my own. I also found early inspiration from the work of John Singer Sargent. On a grammar school trip to New York City, I spent a lot of time looking at Sargent in the Met. Charles Sovek was one of my teachers in art school. He was a wonderful New York illustrator who also spent a lot of time painting outdoors. He wrote a few books on painting that I became interested in when I started to work plein air. And then there was George Carpenter, a Maine artist who painted with Emile Gruppe and took me under his wing. A couple of workshops with Charles Movalli, who edited the Gruppe books developed into a lifelong friendship that changed my life. Movalli was inspiring with his unique intellect and passion that he had for painting and teaching. I’ve been very fortunate, and I continue to draw inspiration from all of these great artists.
To see more of David’s work, visit:
Website
It’s nice to hear Charles Sovek’s name. His oil painting book was helpful to me when I first began painting. I followed the series of exercises and learned some important fundamentals quickly. Great book for aspiring painters.