David Berry was born in Rochester, NY and grew up in Pittsburgh, PA. He was selected to study with a group of artistically-gifted high school students at Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh and went on to earn a BA in Fine Arts from Roberts College in Rochester.
While studying at Carnegie Museum of Art Berry was exposed to painters ranging from George Inness to Mark Rothko and from paintings of intimate size to the expansive canvases of the abstract expressionist. Those influencing became apparent as scale, proportion, space, light and painterliness soon became the epicenter of his work. Constantly exploring the interplay of formal elements and more elusive spiritual concepts, Berry landscapes hover in an interplay that express his personal sense of romanticism.
All of Berry’s landscapes are drawn from a multitude of sources yet none of them are of specific places. His paintings reflect an inner landscape and capture vistas we seem to remember as portrayed by Berry. Somehow they resonant on both a conscience and unconscious level.
At times there is an almost Rothkoesque sensibility in his work as forms interplay with color and the sense of presence has an energetic aura meshing with the tranquil. Hints of color and suggestions of form meld together culminating in paintings that are heroic and place the landscape genre in a contemporary idiom.
If what is picturesque is predictable, and if romanticism is neither a choice of subject or truth but in a way of feeling, then my paintings exist somewhere in my own personal synthesis of this romantic type of thinking.
My visual quest culminates in works of art that are both beautiful and sublime having a timeless presence or inner force conveyed through color and composition resulting in painting that are exquisite in their simplicity.
At times beautiful and at times hauntingly devoid of detail my landscapes explore the terrain of representational painting while tugging on the apron strings of abstract expressionism. The interplay of color and composition is at the heart of my work; one isn’t there without the other. My landscapes are a compelling blend of the sensual act of painting and intellectual perusing.
The vistas I paint exist only in the landscapes I create. These scenes are a convergence of life experiences...serene, poetic, mysterious, and enigmatic. Vying for an inner cohesion my thoughts transcend into paintings of compelling nuance and presence.
The paintings seem to hover like the horizon hovers between heaven and earth. The ephemeral yet potent horizons both separate and unite sky and ground. Bound by the earth’s dance, the two cling to each other and, in the end, yield triumphant paintings.