David Jonason

David Jonason is an acclaimed American painter who has carved a unique niche in contemporary art through a decade’s long devotion to his distinctive style. By distilling the vast, organic landscapes of the American Southwest into precise, geometric forms, he bridges the gap between classic realism and early 20th-century modernism. In an age of artificial intelligence, Jonason's oil paintings convey a sense of the human hand and human innovation with a remarkable clarity. 

Born in 1950, Jonason has been pushing the boundaries of Western landscape painting while carrying the torch of several historical art-movement influences. Elements of Realism, Cubism, Art Deco, Precisionism and Transcendentalism all make appearances in his paintings. He often incorporates subtle zig-zag motifs inspired by Navajo rugs and Pueblo pottery into his compositions. He says, “For me as a painter, it's all about volume and shape, a reductive and simplifying process of finding the natural geometries in nature.”

Born in northeastern Maine, Jonason’s aesthetic journey began within a family of creatives. His father was a portrait photographer and his grandmother an inventive hobbyist who taught him to see visual excitement in everyday surroundings. After moving to Southern California at age five, he became captivated by the stark geometry of the desert.

Jonason’s early career brought him back to the east coast, where he spent time working for the renowned PushPin Agency in New York, producing graphics work for Fortune 500 companies. Further highlights include a decade spent working for ABC News in New York, where he helped pioneer graphic design work for shows like World News Tonight and Nightline. It was here that he found his visual language. In 1993 he left the corporate world, moved to New Mexico and began painting full-time. 

Now, Jonason paints from his studio in Mendocino, California with his wife Michele nearby. His work has been featured in national publications like Western Art & Architecture, Southwest Art, Western Art Collector and Cowboys & Indians. He has been shown in the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana, the Buffalo Bill Center for the West in Cody, Wyoming and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.