Visual Artist, Plein Air Landscape Painter and Draughtsman

David has been drawing and painting his entire life.  His development was encouraged by mentorship under artists Gary Faigin and Tony Ryder.  In 1999, at age 13, David was admitted to adult life drawing sessions at the Seattle Academy of Fine Art (now Gage) under Gary, a formative experience establishing figure work as a fixture in his creative production.  

From 2004-2008 he continued his art study at Dartmouth College as well as pursuing his own professional art practice beyond the classroom.  From 2008-2011, while getting his Master’s at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, he kept up a rigorous practice of art making, specifically explorations in figure and landscape, combining these interests in an optional Masters’ Thesis project on landscape design for the somatic (embodied) senses.  In 2021 he spent six months painting oil portraiture and still life in Santa Fe, returning to Seattle in fall of 2021 to his home city, focusing on plein air watercolor landscapes, graphite portraiture, and a variety of other media, subject and scale.  

Through the discovery of Plein Air Festivals, David is able to find a lifestyle of sharing the artwork he makes with new audiences in new places - to allow them to better value where they are, to give people a chance to connect with original artwork made in real time as they watch.  Yes, the outcomes are paintings, but the process is performance art, public art.

You can learn more about David and his work at DavidOSmithArtist.com