Local artist Dave Reiter has a passion for the story and connection that art brings. Graduating from the Colorado Art Institute, Dave found his artistic voice within the fine arts professionally in 2007. I had the opportunity to meet him at a coffee shop where he kindly brought a couple paintings to show me his work and process.
The coffee shop was glowing from the inside out and Dave’s paintings, Ever Changing But Always the Same and No Pretense, only added to the magic of the wintery evening.
“Everything is done in oils and all from original places I’ve been to,” Dave explains. “I’ve gone to [each] place physically… For colors and engagement with the landscape. All the pieces I do I’ve been there physically to engage with what I paint.”
He shares that two details really make his artwork unique. “First, I leave the edges undone. That is a very subtle thing. I do that with the texture, because I want to push the paint forward just ever so slightly,” Dave says. “The second is, I always share the story or the inspiration behind the piece… I call it the stories behind the paintings.”
Sharing these stories is a beautiful detail that viewers can see on his website, within his ads and truly written on his countenance. Dave is a deep thinker and I would even argue there’s a poet in the midst of his paintbrushes.
He goes on, “On the texture side, when I’m painting I like to show the process. I don’t want to eliminate ‘the mistakes.’ I want to show that there was something else and then I altered it and changed it. For example,” he points out the sky in, Ever Changing But Always the Same, “this was more of a pink before the blue and I could have put the blue and covered all that pink but I wanted to show what was there before.”
These details add an evolution and movement within Dave’s pieces. The way he talks about the steps he takes makes you realize there is a relationship within it. “It comes from living with the piece… almost like having a conversation, and then it evolves into a very living thing, a very active thing,” he describes.
Dave also does a lot of commission work. “I actually get a lot of joy out of [commissions] because it’s unique and it’s specific,” he says. “I will go and see the space because it helps me get the concept of where it is going … I put my whole heart and soul into making it the best that I can.”
Dave talks about the power of original artwork. He encourages, “If you’ve never purchased anything, get something small. Get to know the artist. Find out who they are… go to their art festival, gallery opening… ask the questions, what inspires them?” Dave loves to share his stories and adventurous pursuits. www.DaveReiterArt.com
These details add an evolution and movement within Dave’s pieces. The way he talks about the steps he takes makes you realize there is a relationship within it. “It comes from living with the piece… almost like having a conversation, and then it evolves into a very living thing, a very active thing,” he describes.