David Schwindt

“My paintings are about light and the colors revealed by various kinds of light — morning, evening, and high noon, twilights, and the four seasons. They are also about the rhythms of darks as found in nature in the form of shadows and planes turned away from the light. These ideas of light & color, and natural rhythms, as well as the literal subject of my paintings become a metaphor of the spirit and allow me to ponder the mystery of life.

I always paint when I travel, even if it’s only in my head. Perhaps my paintings are simply records of my movements around the small part of this planet I’ve been fortunate enough to visit. But also, they are records of my movements through ideas. Most of the paintings you get to see are pretty consistent as records of a particular landscape with a sense of place.”

David Schwindt paints primarily the landscapes of the Southwest because they are most familiar to him. He knows the landscapes intimately, having moved to western Colorado when he was four years old. Childhood memories of the big skies and open spaces on the plains of eastern Colorado and Kansas childhood influenced his desire to paint the dramatic skies of the West, as well as its mountains and canyons. David studied color theory and basic design at two western universities before completing a degree in art in 1971 with minors in music and humanities at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO.