John David O'Shaughnessy
John David O’ Shaughnessy is best known for his adept and powerful capture of the movement and shifting color and light of the ocean. His gestural and expressive paintings explore seascape observed directly from life “Plein Air”. His intense works glean a visceral and material sense of the forces of nature for the viewer. Yet, throughout ocean many infused years, he was also exploring the human face and it’s subtle moods with his color sensibilities and gestures. Facial expressions found their way into his paintings and his ceramics, and now the elemental human visage has begun to take on a new presence in his work. O’ Shaughnessy is poised to match his discipline in teaching students new modes of self portraiture, with a fresh emotive face revealing exploration of his own.
~Kennebec Valley Art Association
"Cape Neddick, Maine" oil on canvas 20" x 24"
"Ocean Sun Break" oil on canvas 20" x 20"
"Kennebunkport, Ocean View" oil on canvas 16" x 20"
"Sun Setting, Active Ocean on Rocks" oil on canvas 24" x 30"
"Sky Reflects on Water, Sun Setting" oil on canvas 24" x 30"
click on images for larger views
John David’s work involves a process of discovery through building up and breaking down of the surface. His painting process involves creating passage and then editing and wipe out large areas, in a dance of visual language. He allows each part of the painting to be moveable and changeable, knocking elements off balance and then bring the painting back to center. The artist says that “…the human quality of painting is important as a means of communication in the work, it allows for vulnerability and honesty.”
The ever changing motion of water is primal and visceral to the human experience for John David. These ocean paintings are direct responses to nature, time, place, memory, light phenomena, color, shape, texture and form within the singularity of two dimensional form. They are painted on location and are a direct response to the changing environment of water, tide, sky and light experienced through the senses. The artist strives to achieve a relationship between the physicality of paint and the consist change and of the coastal experience.
It is the artists hope these paintings are experienced on a level deeper than appearances, alluding to the unattainable and unnamable, beyond self while establishing a sense of place.
The ever changing motion of water is primal and visceral to the human experience for John David. These ocean paintings are direct responses to nature, time, place, memory, light phenomena, color, shape, texture and form within the singularity of two dimensional form. They are painted on location and are a direct response to the changing environment of water, tide, sky and light experienced through the senses. The artist strives to achieve a relationship between the physicality of paint and the consist change and of the coastal experience.
It is the artists hope these paintings are experienced on a level deeper than appearances, alluding to the unattainable and unnamable, beyond self while establishing a sense of place.