David Witbeck

“My paintings are completely made-up. They are meant to be iconic rather than descriptive, creating a feeling, an emotional response, with somewhat generic symbols rather than to accurately catalogue the particulars of an identifiable person, place, or thing.

A blank canvas is my place I make the world as it “should” be. “My places and things have analogs in reality, but specifically, they exist only in my mind and on the canvas. They are irreverent fantasies made up of love of boats and the seacoast, respect and admiration for people who wrest a living from saltwater, and maybe just a little bit of envy or disappointment of never having been one of them. They come from years of observation, a good amount of imagination and just a smidgeon of actual experience.”