Eileen David: Recent Paintings

The Paul Thiebaud Gallery launches its summer programming with an exhibition of the work of Bay Area painter, Eileen David.  Eileen David:  Recent Paintings runs from June 20 through July 25.  Continuing the exploration of urban landscapes, this current body of small and medium format paintings captures discrete views of a “everyday” San Francisco with a particular emphasis on the effects of light. 

David’s San Francisco scenes are notably influenced by, but not dependent upon, the Bay Area figurative tradition, from subject matter and realist approach to palette and brushwork.  Her paintings relay a strong sense of individuality and identity.  In her search for source material, the artist gravitates toward capturing the play of light as it affects buildings and structures.  By observing the same location at various times of the day, she is able convey the way light transforms an area.

David documents areas observed throughout her workday, traveling between her Hunter’s Point studio, Daly City residence, and her Skyline College classroom, where she teaches part-time. Whether focused on the patterning of houses cascading downhill or on a timeworn bascule bridge straddling active waterways, she celebrates scenes of the city.  Although identifiably San Francisco, it was the artist’s upbringing in New York City, that nurtured her fondness for a timeworn city.  She sees beauty where many others do not.  As she explains in her artist’s statement accompanying the show, “Concrete and steel, roads, trucks, and bridges, traffic lights and signs, the fabric in which our urban environment is woven.  These things that make up our daily surroundings are taken for granted, often overlooked, visually discarded . . . but it is the solidity and endurance and the visual effects of time wearing on those structures that resonate for me.”