Paul Davis

These paintings are about quietness, peacefulness and a calm state of mind. They are also about my experiences. I grew up in Connecticut and we were never far from a freeway or the city. So at age 10 when we moved to a small town in the mountains of Vermont, my world changed. I was powerfully affected by the adventure of the mountains.My family was from Vermont and somehow I felt that the mountains belonged to me. On car trips I scoured the patterns and forms of every mountainside, imagining the route I would take to the top. Coming across a deer in the forest for the first time was absolutely exhilarating, and I still feel that way today on my daily hikes in the mountains of Utah Paul Davis draws superbly in the Florentine tradition of structural draughts. This tradition is founded on the close study of the human figure, on a clear and accurate projection of information onto a flat plane. Davis’ hand is both sober and graceful and conveys information lucidly and elegantly. Draughtsmen of this quality are few and far between.His paintings are beautifully observed and put together with a touch that is both broad and refined, each mark exhibiting sensitivity to conditions of light and a wonderful control of tonal values. This responsiveness to light is the painter’s supreme gift. It is not an attribute that often goes with draughtsman’s skills, which tend to lead in other directions.In his studio compositions, the draughtsman and the painter come together. These are unusual, enigmatic pictures, not easy to categorize. They reflect an interest in the photography and a considerable knowledge of pictorial construction. They have a powerful feeling for architectural spaces and the movement of a figures within them, and a mysterious and memorable atmosphere. Paul Davis is a remarkably original painter. He is a most serious and dedicated artist with an acute eye and a highly developed critical sense. His work is sophisticated, knowledgeable and completely independent.