Hi Subscriber,
Dave Santillanes is a Colorado-based fine artist focusing in landscapes
of the American west. His work stands out for its dynamic compositions
and strong sense of atmosphere, achieved by clearly controlled values.
In addition to being an award-winning painter, he is a sought-after
painting instructor and mentor. He joined BoldBrush from his Colorado
studio to discuss his influences, education, and studio practice, as
well as some of the regional painters of the American West who informed
his aesthetic.
Enjoy,
BoldBrush Studio Team
_____
Dave Santillanes, Change in the Canyon study
Dave Santillanes, Change in the Canyon study
He is largely self-taught as a painter; although he briefly studied
fine art in college and took one or two painting workshops, he feels
that his most important skills were learned through trying things out
for himself. As a kid, he always loved to draw and always wanted to
become a full-time artist. But, like many aspiring artists without
real-life mentors, he had no idea how to make that a practical reality.
While attending Colorado State University, he started in the fine art
department, but felt the lack of concrete information. He switched
majors, first to history and then to graphic design, in a search for a
major that would combine his passions with practicality. After
graduating in graphic design, he began to gravitate back to painting.
"I didn't really paint until after college. But all of my art heroes
were painters, so I started to get into it myself. Richard Schmid,
Clyde Aspevig, the California impressionists such as William Wendt and
Edgar Payne - I started to study these artists, and realized that every
single one of them painted out-of-doors. So I started painting out of
doors. I was out in the mountains a lot anyways, hiking and
backpacking, so I got a painting kit that I could fit in my backpack
and whenever I went for a hike I would bring it along. That's how I
evolved into landscape painting - I was following in the footsteps of
the painters I admired."
Dave Santillanes, Rising Shadows
Dave Santillanes, Rising Shadows
In the year after college, he took an accidental gap year that ended up
being a fortunate choice. He moved to a ski town in the Colorado
mountains, where he worked on the mountain as a 'liftie' and at a
picture frame shop on the weekends. His plan was to find a job in
graphic design, but he quickly found out that landing a full-time job
in graphic design in a small ski town is not an easy thing. "So I just
worked a couple of jobs, skied, and painted instead. I had a makeshift
studio in a ski closet locker - it was outside, in the middle of
winter, heated with only a space heater! But I really wanted to figure
some things out, so I made it work. And then I just kept painting after
I moved back to my home town."
He did many odd jobs during these first few years, as he knew by now
that his main focus was learning to paint. "During this time, in my
early twenties, I knew of some artists my age who were already
successful painters with name recognition and gallery representation. I
was still learning; I had just one painting, but I decided to shop it
around to galleries. Doors could not have shut faster! And honestly it
would not make sense, as a gallery, to take on an artist with just one
painting to his name and no reputation. That was my one big attempt to
take a shortcut, and it make me realize the shortcut wasn't going to
work and I was in it for the long haul. My thought process was that I
was going to do this anyways whether I was successful or not, because I
loved it, and that mellowed me out. Once I knew I was in it for the
long haul, I slowed down and took my time. But the motivation was
always there and I was always working at getting better."
Then he got a job at a photo and design lab that worked with Richard
Schmid and other local artists, photographing and color-correcting
their work. "I worked in the digital imaging department, and in fact
it's a valuable skill that I still use all the time - I use photoshop
frequently to critique work in online workshops. It was a great day
job, if you have to have a day job, because I was working with great
artists and their paintings. In fact, I did the color-correction for
the photographs in Richard Schmid's book Alla Prima. Really, the
connections were perfect for what I wanted to do. Don't think I didn't
study every single one of the paintings I worked on, to figure out what
it was that made them work. I was still painting as often as I could,
but I worked there for about twelve years before I made the jump to
full-time art. During that time, I kept painting and painting until I
had gained enough of a following and name recognition. It was a slow
and steady process. One of the cool things about working at a small
company was that I had a space of my own; I would bring my paintings
into work, just set them there, and think about them throughout the
day, because I didn't want to stop painting. It helped me feel like I
was in the process during the work day, which was huge. I could look at
the painting throughout the day and think about what was bothering me,
and then take it home and work on it at night. So I was never really
out of the process, even when I was at work."
Although he was looking very carefully at the work of the artists he
admired, he was never one to take classes, and mostly learned by a
process of learning from his own mistakes. He took just one workshop,
when he was beginning oil painting, from Skip Whitcomb. "That was very
helpful, but not so much for the painting aspects as the simple
technical things, like organizing your palette according to value or
holding a brush at the end rather than at the ferrule, the things that
are too obvious to be included in a book but you never think of for
yourself!"
Many of the artists he admires were based in the western U.S., and his
own work also has the stylistic flavor of the American west, a regional
distinction that is subtle but recognizable. Dave thinks there are
several reasons for both the distinct regional style and for his own
participation in that tradition. "For one thing, the contemporary
artists Clyde Aspevig and Richard Schmid lived in Colorado, so early on
I saw their work quite a bit in person, not knowing their international
reputations but just admiring the work. And then I learned that Clyde
Aspevig studied the work of Edgar Payne, and I kind of leapfrogged
backward from there - you study the work of your heroes and find out
their influences and extend back through art history to where it all
began. But Clyde was really my introduction to all of these western
artists."
Dave Santillanes, Rhythm of Winter
Dave Santillanes, Rhythm of Winter
He added that he thinks the California Impressionists, of whom Edgar
Payne was one, were a strong defining influence on the look of western
art and their stylistic choices have filtered down to the present
generation of landscape painters. West coast artists tend to use
vibrant color and have a stronger sense of atmospheric perspective than
their East coast counterparts. This is in large part due to the nature
of the dramatic light and landscape of the American west, but it's also
a part of the legacy handed down by this branch of impressionism - the
California Impressionists were working at a defining time in the
culture of the west and have shaped the tradition of painting there.
There was also a personal appeal for Dave in their interpretation of
impressionism. "I think the California Impressionists had such a strong
influence out west that they have infiltrated many artists' work,
whether they be fine artists or concept artists, even if they don't
really know about them as a group. The California Impressionists are an
extension of the Impressionism that started in France, of course, but
where they're unique, and what I really liked about the California
impressionists in particular, was that they paid more attention to
linear detail. I was coming from a very tight, linear drawing
background and transitioning into painting. Drawing is so different
from painting - I liked the more linear and representational emphasis
of the California Impressionists."
He hasn't limited his study to Western landscapists though: "I can't
even count all of the influences I have now - there are so many artists
I've encountered in passing and I'll incorporate elements of their work
into my own. And part of my individual style comes from not following
just one genre or school of art but being open to everyone and all
styles. My wife studied with Zhaoming Wu in San Francisco, and his
style is very different from the influences I've listed, but I really
study his edges - he's a master at the application of edges. I think,
whenever I'm stuck on something, about how the masters would handle the
problem. It slowly infiltrates your own way of painting and problem
solving. And on the matter of influences in general, I think it's
important to be open to all different styles, even the abstract artists
- all of them can be beneficial to your own personal style."
Now, as an established artist, he has developed a studio practice
informed by all of these influences and experiences. Much of his
current practice is large-scale studio landscapes based off plein air
studies. "I still love to go out for a day into the mountains and just
paint, and then bring those studies back to the studio and develop them
into even better pieces - better in the sense of composing and telling
the story that I want to tell. The plein air is just one step in the
process, but a very valuable one."
Dave Santillanes, Mountain Air Study
Dave Santillanes, Mountain Air Study
When painting outside, he ranks his priorities according to what
information he most needs to capture for his larger paintings. "The
number one priority in plein air is atmosphere and light; blocking in
shadow shapes because that's where I think the atmosphere is captured.
Getting the color of nature right to describe those elements. After
color, light, and atmosphere, the overall 'story' or focal point is
important. Often in nature we'll see four or five things at once that
we want to paint - and to me, that's four or five different paintings,
but sometimes I'll throw it all in one study and then divide it up in
the studio into different paintings with different ideas. Those would
be the top four elements I focus on in outdoor painting. And then
composition is fifth in my list of priorities. I'll obsess about
composition in the studio, but when I'm outside there really isn't
time. I might move some elements of the scene around, to get a start at
what I'm seeing as a composition, but won't really refine it till I get
back to the studio. And I do the same thing with a camera, I'll snap a
photo of something that might make a nice composition. But back in the
studio there are always changes to make the composition better."
Once he's back in the studio with studies and photographs in hand, he
looks at the plein air and contemplates how he wants to work it into a
finished painting. Often, he does smaller studies of the plein air
study on a 9x12'' or 12x16'' board, using the original plein air and
photos as reference, the painting for atmospheric detail and the photos
for linear detail. "That secondary study is a very fluid composing
surface. For me, it's the most liberating part of the process; there
are no expectations whatsoever. Everything is moveable, I don't have to
get it right the first time. I can move things mid-painting, it's easy
when you use oil. Oil fits the way I paint because I never know, right
off, how I'm going to fit things together in that secondary study. I
have to do things by feel, I'll shift things this way and that. I'll
even do it when working outdoors occasionally. If I were a watercolor
painter, where you really can't change things, I would do far more
planning. But since I don't have to plan, I just think about it as I
go. And if it doesn't work, I've only spent a few hours on it."
Dave Santillanes, Grand Canyon, Study
Dave Santillanes, Grand Canyon, Study
His finished landscapes show the planning and practice that he puts
into each piece. They have carefully designed compositions and a strong
sense of light and air that makes the atmosphere palpable. Like the
California impressionists who inspired him, there's a pleasing balance
between the atmospheric effects and the linear structure. "I think I
probably do push the atmosphere on purpose now, more than when I first
started. When I first started painting I was accidentally pushing it,
and then I realized that it created a very pleasing effect and that it
was ok to push it on purpose. If you want something to sit back in your
painting, you can only do it through atmospheric effect; it's the most
powerful way to create depth. And that again comes from studying the
California Impressionist paintings. Impressionist paintings are all
about capturing the atmosphere, and when you stand in front of one of
these paintings you feel like you're really there; atmosphere is the
most powerful way to capture a sense of place. When I first started
painting I knew I wanted to capture that, but had no idea of how to do
it, so I just kept making mistakes and figuring it out, reading and
studying paintings and practicing from life. It used to freak me out
when my plein air painting looked so different from the photos I took -
it was so different I wondered if my painting was ok! But I quickly
realized that I was drawn to plein air work because it captured
atmosphere in a way that a photograph never could."
His sense of design, though, he credits to his early work as a graphic
designer and photo editor. "It really shaped my sensibility and spatial
awareness. It's amazing how much learning how to place text on a page
so that it looks good helped my painting. It's all about shapes. You
wouldn't think there would be any correlation between graphic design
and composing a painting, but they are virtually identical in my
thought process. My idea of a nicely composed ad was simplification,
and it's the same thing with a painting. If you try to put everything
into a single painting it will look terrible, but if you simplify down
to just one impactful area, it will be very powerful. The same goes for
ad design. Simplifying down to a single message. That influences my
sense of design more than anything else."
Dave, an experienced instructor, has several different venues for
teaching and mentoring. He has an online painting school through his
website that features video-driven instruction. He also offers a
mentorship online that meets every month and is part of a mentorship
program called Leveling Up, which is like an interactive online
workshop, that features master artists from a variety of disciplines.
He added that he doesn't really distinguish between beginners and
advanced artists when he's teaching, because wherever his student's
skill level lies, he has realized he has his own specific set of
experiences to offer them. "Once a group of very professional portrait
painters wanted to take a workshop from me and I wondered what I could
possibly teach these internationally-known figure painters. I decided I
was just going to teach the way I teach every workshop I do, and they
told me they got a lot out of it because I talked about atmosphere in a
way they had never learned it. So I think that there is something for
everyone. A beginner might not pick up everything I throw at them, but
the things they do pick up will help them just as much as the different
things that a seasoned professional might gather. I teach all levels,
and want to help each of my students as much as I can. And for the
mentorships, I work with artists from all media backgrounds, because
even though I work mainly in oils, the principles and concepts behind a
good painting apply to all styles and materials." He also has several
upcoming in-person workshops for 2022, in locations ranging from Mexico
to Alaska - to learn more, you can go to his website: dasanti.com
.
Dave Santillanes, Poverty Creek
Dave Santillanes, Poverty Creek
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