David Armstrong
Painting

I've painted in three primary mediums.  I established my reputation as an oil painter in the mid-sixties painting in the Georgian Bay area.  I painted in watercolour throughout the eighties and nineties which I particularly enjoyed while living in BC.  But I've been painting with acrylics since returning to Ontario and my work is larger and looser because of it.

My paintings are largely pictorial though somewhat abstract.  The colours are from a simple palette of earth pigments, used with large brushes.  The result is fresh and lively.  As an easel artist, I paint vertically and directly.  Most paintings are done 'a la prima'.  I paint where I am; and farms, villages, and urban landscapes are frequent themes.

Several years ago I began to make my own frames from white pine or basswood.  Each frame is tailor-made for the painting.  The frames are wide, painted to show layers of colour in the old traditional way of gesso with a patina worked into the surface.  These are fun to do and make a good home for my particular style of painting.