David Jonason
David Jonason achieves a uniquely personal vision through his iconic, vividly dreamlike oil paintings. He uses his love of landscapes and design with a keen artistic talent to create evocative paintings that transcend the angles and shapes of his subject matter. Jonason's innovative style, which he describes as "Contemporary Cubism", employs slashes of light and color to emphasize the sculpted shapes of arches, cliffs, clouds and mesas while integrating elements of both Cubism and Realism into clean lines, strong forms and bold uses of color. His artistic influences include Cubism, Futurism, Art Deco, Leger, Braque, Juan Gris and especially the work of Southwest painter Maynard Dixon.
Jonason fills his palette with the intense natural colors of the region, distilled to their very essence: fiery reds, deep crystalline blues, emerald greens, earth tones so rich you can almost feel the rocks and soil beneath your feet. He portrays the landscape of his paintings with a realist's eye, rendering it with a clarity that makes his paintings remarkably real, uncannily present. "I've always liked images that are stylized and streamlined," he explains.
While vacationing as a child with his family, Jonason was inspired by the countless road trips through the West and Southwest. As an adult, Jonason continues to appreciate the mystery and natural beauty of the desert.
"The American Southwest has the biggest skies, the 'reddest' rocks, the most dramatic spires and buttes", he says. "Of all landscapes, I love the desert the most. It represents to me the grandeur of nature, a sense of peace and serenity. The stark angular qualities of the Colorado Plateau in particular seem to easily lend themselves to cubist interpretations".
"I believe images of the Southwest are as iconic as the Statue of Liberty", Jonason says. "The gaping canyons, the cacti, the cliff dwellings and red buttes - these spectacular locations are so familiar to us. They're intrinsic to how we see and think of ourselves as Americans." Jonason's paintings convey the same sense of limitless possibility and boundless opportunity that fueled Western Expansion in the 19th Century.
Prior to his career in fine art, Jonason was an accomplished commercial artist. He was represented in the 1980's by PushPin, New York's trend-setting design and illustration agency. There, he produced coveted illustrations for Fortune 500 advertising and editorial clients. He also worked in television, designing and supervising the production of graphics segments for "ABC World News Tonight", "Nightline" and "Good Morning America", among others. A native of Los Angeles, David now lives in Mendocino with his wife Michele.
Despite drawing upon a wide variety of influences, Jonason nevertheless achieves a style entirely his own. "You can never really be like anybody else," he says. "Whatever you do as an artist, it's going to come out very differently being your own personal creation."
