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Artist Spotlight: Painter David Lloyd Glover
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05/15/15 BY STEPHANIE MEISSNER
David Lloyd Glover is a vivid Impressionist artist with a long and successful career as an artist and illustrator. See more of his work in Color Mixing in Acrylic.
Question: How did you get started painting?
David Lloyd Glover: Like all kids, we really get started painting in kindergarten. Disney animation and Buck Rogers serials inspired me in the early 1950s. My earliest artistic adventures were pages of drawings of Disney characters, with my favorite character being Goofy the dog. I was put to work by my elementary school teachers...being the official artist-in-residence and decorating the school with murals and windows depicting the seasons and the holidays. I think I spent more time in my studio room than in the classroom. As I advanced in grades, I became the newspaper illustrator, school cartoonist, and school annual artist. If anything in our school required a poster, banner, or anything with some kind of art, it was my job.
Q: How did you first hear about Walter Foster Publishing?
DLG: In 1956 I was given a Christmas gift of a whole box of oil colors, brushes, canvases, and a wood easel from my grandmother. Along with that gift came a copy of Portraits in Oils by Stella Mackie, published by Walter T. Foster. I really liked the style of Mackie and incorporated her painterly brushstroke methods into the rest of my work. When I enrolled at art school evening classes at the museum, I was already considered a mature painter, but I confess I got there as a result of studying the book.
One of David Lloyd Glover's earliest landscape canvases, inspired by a Walter Foster publication.
Q: Which artists have influenced you? Are there other people who have inspired and encouraged you to pursue art?
DLG: Being a Canadian, we were exposed the famous Group of Seven impressionist painters. Our schools hallways and classrooms were decorated with silkscreen reproductions of the works of Tom Thomson, A.Y. Jackson, Lawren Harris, Emily Carr, and others. My favorite was Thomson, and although I did not copy his work of style, I found the bold brushwork of his plein air work inspiring. My father's brother was a prolific documentary filmmaker, and I found his approach to imagery and narrative an inspiration. His life partner also happened to be Norman McLaren, perhaps the most famous art animator of all time, and I would study the creative and strange worlds he would explore in his paintings on film. Just knowing him was a revelation in itself.
Q: Can you tell us about your approach to color?
DLG: To me a photograph is something that captures the facts of what is there. A painting captures the emotional response to what we see. Color is the expression of how we feel about a painting, rather than just what we see. The Impressionists worked on the theory that forms are made up of many deconstructed colors, and I feel that makes for a lively painting. The Fauves went a step further and amped up their use of color to reach beyond what was purely logical. Yet our human response to the art was not to be put off by the bold color use; rather, our eyes and inner sensibilities accept it totally. Therefore, I use colors richly and without fear. I am a color mixer, rather than a straight-from-the-tube painter. I work with a simple palette and make it my own as I am painting.
Q: How has your work evolved over the years?
DLG: As an illustrator I was trained to draw and paint very accurately, and with as much detail as possible, to convey the message within the image. When I worked in watercolor, I paid great attention to the details and atmospheric effects. I had studied the works of Andrew Wyeth and liked his attention to detail on one hand and his suggestive brushwork on the other...I worked to get a sense of air and light like he did in my earlier works.
I think that in order to work like I do now, which is increasingly loose and painterly, an artist should work as a realist first. The 20 years of painting, working to a high degree of fidelity, gave my hand and eyes a great amount of skill. Slowly I started to pull back from what I call the "tightness" of the work to more suggestive brushwork. Working in a loose manner doesn't mean it's easier; in fact, it takes much more confidence to know what to leave out than what to leave in.
Q: What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?
DLG: To any young artist I would tell them that they should model themselves after an artist they admire. I don't mean copying, but taking the time to study their work and read a biography or two on them. Get to know something about the artist on a personal level. What was their life like? What was their artistic path? How did they develop, and what was their motivation? How did they achieve success, and how did they fail? We need to understand, as artists, that we are all on an artistic journey. And it's a very long and winding road. There are no straight lines in success and many sudden forks in the road, with decisions to make.
In the world of professional art there are many artists trying to make a career, and I advise anyone entering the field not to pay too much attention to your contemporaries. You must keep your eye on your own path and not be distracted by a fellow colleague's success or failure. Your career path is unique and your own vision. Follow your own desire to create art, and you will produce good work and fulfill the gift of your talents.
Photos courtesy of David Lloyd Glover
For the past 28 years, David has been a fulltime fine artist creating original works in watercolor, oil, and acrylic for galleries and fine-art publishers internationally. His subject matter is wide ranging, and his techniques are equally as varied. David paints in series that share a similar theme—from mountain landscapes and seascapes to still lifes and gardens of the United Kingdom. David also finds himself painting scenes of Japan, the missions of California, and country life in Tuscany. It all depends on where his interest has directed his artistic attention.
Learn more about David by visiting www.davidlglover.com.
FILED UNDER: ARTIST SPOTLIGHT / TAGGED: PAINTING, COLOR MIXING, HOW TO PAINT
Stephanie Meissner
Stephanie is Senior Editor at Walter Foster Publishing. A lifelong bibliophile, Stephanie also loves photography, design, typography, and cooking. She blogs about her artistic endeavors and creative adventures atwww.stephaniegracestudio.com.
