| "On the days that I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations - I have really good days" Ray Wylie Hubbard Singer/Songwriter
David Simpson was a child of the east, with one foot set in the past and his heart set firmly in the west. Growing up in the pine woods of North Florida, while other kids were collecting Superman, Batman, and Spiderman comics, he devoured the monthly adventures of Kid Colt and the Rawhide Kid. An avid reader, David is a fan of authors like Larry McMurtry, Craig Johnson, Louis L'Amour, and Zane Grey. He has never seen Star Wars but has watched every western that John Wayne ever made.
David lived for a time in the wild, sparsely populated open spaces of the Big Bend region of West Texas and traveled extensively throughout the southwestern United States. Settling in Oklahoma City in the mid-1980s, on a dare, he took a contract from a bail bondsman to track, arrest and return a fugitive from the border region of Northern Mexico. He claims that it was the first of many bad decisions that he would make over the next thirty years.
For the next three decades, his day job as a bounty hunter served the purposes of keeping a roof over his family's head and food on the table, but art was never far from David's mind. He woke up one morning in 2016, both literally and figuratively. Before breakfast, and without a second thought, David made the decision to walk away from the bail bond business in order to pursue his dream of being a full-time artist. He has never looked back.
David refers to himself as "unconventionally educated" through trial, error, and sheer frustration, as well as input and advice from a few talented artist friends. He works primarily in Panpastel using Taklon brushes in a process that he refers to as "painting with powder". David's subjects are typically the people and animals that depict western and Native American culture, both old and new. A few of the artists that inspire him are Morgan Weistling, Mikel Donahue, Carrie Ballantyne, and almost any member of the Cowboy Artists of America, past and present.
David currently lives and works from his home studio in Oklahoma City. A portion of the proceeds from David's work is donated to the Special Olympics and charities dealing with PTSD and veteran/law enforcement suicide.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT A friend once commented that I have lived the kind of life that young men dream of and that old men wished that they had led. I'm not sure that's true, but I do know that I didn't live the life that I personally dreamed of. However, my dad once cautioned me that, when you live your life without any rules, you're not entitled to regrets. So, I have none.
As a kid, I would visit my grandmother in West Texas during the summer. She had a huge box full of dozens if not hundreds of old black and white, as well as tin type photographs. One of my fondest memories is of sitting at her kitchen table with her poring through those pictures. Ever since, I have been fascinated with monochromatic work and my style has evolved into a sort of modified "en brunaille" effect working mostly in values of raw umber.
There's really no deep meaning behind my art. I paint and draw the things that I love. I paint the life that I dreamed of as a kid. When I sit down at the easel, I hope that the result will make someone smile or bring back a memory. Even better, perhaps the viewer will come to love the same things that I do. But if I have to explain my work, then one of us, through no fault of our own, has probably wandered into the wrong doggone place. |
