David Chamberlain

Photography

Photo of a derelict car at an auto graveyard in Lilburn, Georgia, 2023. The paint detailing had curled, and it gave the rusted car an abstract quality I liked, so I snapped a picture with my iPhone SE.

Photography

This is a photo of a small snail slowly exploring the wide expanse of a leaf. I spotted him oozing along when I stopped to look at some Canna lilies while on a bike ride in Tucker, Georgia. I used my iPhone SE to shoot it in June, 2024.

Painting

This is a watercolor that was a puddle of watery paint that I didn't initially know what to shape it into. Then, a moment later, I imagined an older man in profile, and so I used a fine tipped brush to fan the nose and all the features and the head into shape. I then used the blunt end of the brush to impress the wet paper with some faint indentations as well. Painted in 2022.

Photography

This is a photo of a very close friend, noted musician and songwriter Tom Gray, who was terminally ill when I visited him at his home in Decatur, Georgia. He was always a serious guitarist and would not let his disease slow his "Blues Hands." He passed in October of 2021. A musician till the end...

Painting

Watercolor of imaginary fish and squid, done with water filled squeegee songs and watercolor blots and then shaping into aquatic shapes with a fine tipped paintbrush. Details were made by impressing the wet watercolor paper with the blunt end of the brush. When the painting dried, I added touches with colored pencils. 2021.

Painting

This is a rapid sketch I did in 2019 using India ink and a big, broad paintbrush. I relied on my memory of what King King looked like...

Painting

This is a painting I did that reminds me of a face that is from somewhere else, many decades ago. Watercolor paint and a fine brush, 2021.

Painting

"The Aquarelles" is one of a large number of watercolors I've done that have an aquatic theme. The large painting was done with touches of paint overrun by a water filled squeegee sponge, and then the colored puddles are shaped into "fish" shapes with a fine brush and then details are impressed into the waterlogged paper with the blunt end of the brush. It is all done very quickly before the paint settles and dries. 2021

Painting

"Brave Traveler" is an acrylic painting of a cephalopod in the swirling deep, painted in 2019.

Works on Paper

"Nemo" is my depiction of the mysterious captain of the Nautilus in Jules Vernes's classic tale. Done in MUJI pens and colored pencils in 2021.

Painting

This is a painting done with scratchboard technique wherein I created a bare outline from a big puddle of India ink on coated paper, and when it dried I carefully chipped away at the blackness with an X-Acto blade to reveal details of the hands, face, clothing and his banjo. Painted in 2020.

Painting

"Holler" is a scratchboard painting done in India ink wherein I created a big puddle of ink and roughly shaped the woman and her bass violin with a brush. After the ink dried, I went in and defined her features and clothing and instrument by chipping away with an X-Acto blade. She's a Bluegrass musician stompin' away to the high lonesome sound....

Painting

"Soul Crab" is a painting using two different puddle of blue and brown gouache that are washed together quickly with a squeegee sponge brush and then brushed into shape with a fine tipped paintbrush. September, 2024.

Painting

"Space Is The Place" is an acrylic painting made by applying random blobs of liquid paint on a black rubber surface and then rolling over them with assorted ink brayers which results in long streamers of intermixed color. The effect is rather psychedelic. After the resulting mess is photographed, the paint gets removed with water, leaving the surface ready for another treatment, and only the photograph remains. September, 2024.