'Tulips and Calla Lilies' by David Barnes, Mendocino, California, Large Modernist Oil Still Life

Description

Signed lower right, 'Barnes' for David P. Barnes (American, born 1930) and painted circa 1965.

A vibrant, modernist still-life showing … more Signed lower right, 'Barnes' for David P. Barnes (American, born 1930) and painted circa 1965.

A vibrant, modernist still-life showing a profusion of white Calla lilies with red and yellow tulips, informally arranged in a blue vase and contrasted against a background of scumbled dusty rose.

David Barnes was raised in the foothills of California's Sierra Nevada where his artistic talent was first encouraged by his parents. At the age of eight, his art career acquired a more focused direction when Maude Barnett, head of the art department at Modesto Junior College, recognized that talent and he began to receive guidance through a structured course of study. Barnett continued to direct his artistic development through his high school and college years. Barnes went on to receive his Bachelor of Arts degree from Sacramento State University and his Master of Arts degree from Mexico's University of Guanajuato.

After graduation, Barnes first worked as a commercial artist but was soon drawn to teaching, joining the Fort Bragg Unified School system where he taught for over thirty years. He also taught art with the College of the Redwoods, at their Mendocino Coast campus. Over the course of his long career as a fine artist, David Barnes has exhibited widely and with success. A master of several mediums, he has been the recipient of numerous prizes and juried awards for his painting, sculpture and graphic arts. We are pleased to offer this luminous still life, painted when the artist was in his thirties. less