Don Shields
The Paintings of Don Shields
“There is always a bit of a surprise…” Don Shields’ future as a professional artist was set, when as a young man, he was awarded two of the most highly sought after prizes in the art world: the famed Rome Prize and the Guggenheim fellowship. Both of these allowed him to travel, to live in Italy and New York City, and to create paintings that were inspired by various aspects of the Italian artistic heritage, as well as the history of 20th century modern art. |
Historically, artists of the western world were expected to study the great artists of Italian Renaissance (such as Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian), and aspiring artists who could afford to do so would make the Grand Tour of the European museums to study the Italian old masters. Don Shields was as captivated by the Italian artists as were his predecessors. Don’s year in Italy as a Rome Prize winner, and subsequent visits to Italy, and especially Venice, solidified his fascination for Venetian Renaissance painters. The paintings of Venetian artists like Titian were notable for their more vivid color and looser, sketchier brushstrokes than seen elsewhere in Renaissance art. These characteristics would become more pronounced in the hands of 20th century modern artists, and found their way into Don’s paintings, some of which can be seen in this exhibit. Also, Don’s love of animals, and his fascination with the lap dogs and other imaginatively painted animals seen in Venetian Renaissance art, led to his series of canine images.
Furthermore, Don’s artistic vision was inspired by his experience as a long-haul truck driver traveling from Texas to Alaska and back. This vision was formed in part by the sensory intake of vast skies and continental spaces seen from the open road. The paintings in this exhibit hint at that flood of light, air, and space that filled a truck driver’s vision. Along the same lines, the view from Don’s painting studio in Benicia, California provided the vast views of wind-swept hills, waterways, open sky, and California light that sometimes can be seen in his paintings. Some of the paintings might even suggest the hint of an exotic, fanciful or even mythical journey.
These paintings reveal the connection to 20th century modernism with respect to their abstract style and vivid coloration. For many reasons, by the turn of the 20th century western artists were abandoning the old traditional styles rooted in the attachment to realism that produced imagery based on the visual appearances of things seen in nature. This resulted in forms and figures that displayed anatomical accuracy and the illusion of three dimensionality both in the figures and in the space around the figures. 20th century artistic modernism yielded a new, more personal approach to art, without the dependence on realism seen in the art of earlier centuries. The result, as seen in the modernist paintings of Don Shields, are figures more abstract than realistic, color that is heightened and intensified, and the illusion of space, that although present, is not based on the traditional formulas of perspective. This modern approach to style can be more profoundly personal, intuitive, and emotionally expressive than what is seen in traditional art, as it flows from the inner life of the artist rather than from the traditional directive that the image should appear as a carbon copy of the visible world. Another aspect of modernism seen in Don’s paintings is the appearance of very visible brushstrokes, a quality that began to appear centuries ago in the art of the Venetian painters of the Italian Renaissance. The primacy of the paint, however, was a modern idea rooted in truth to materials, that paint should maintain its property to look like paint, and that brushstrokes should not be smoothed out to disappear as they often did in traditional art. Very visible brushstrokes, as seen in Don’s paintings, can be a vehicle for increased emotional expression, or even reflect the more child-like approach to painting that was widely admired in the 20th century because it reflected a more free-form, intuitive, even truthful expression of our inner selves.
Finally, Don once stated, “When I begin a painting, I never have a clear idea of what I’m going to paint. There is always a bit of a surprise…” This is not surprising for an artist steeped in modernism. Centuries ago, artists would spend days, months, or even years doing preparatory drawings that would lay down and secure every square inch of a composition before a brushstroke ever hit the canvas. By contrast, modern art like Don’s is about the actual process of painting, and what magic happens when brush is put to canvas and the imagination takes charge. In the paintings of Don Shields we see this magical, evocative, even whimsical world where the inner life of the artist reveals itself in imaginative, perhaps exotic, brightly colored, and expansive spaces inhabited by strange or familiar creatures that stir the imagination.
Helayna Thickpenny
Former Chair, Art and Humanities Departments
Mission College
The author would like to thank Michele Rowe-Shields for her recollections related to the art of her late husband, Don Shields.
Furthermore, Don’s artistic vision was inspired by his experience as a long-haul truck driver traveling from Texas to Alaska and back. This vision was formed in part by the sensory intake of vast skies and continental spaces seen from the open road. The paintings in this exhibit hint at that flood of light, air, and space that filled a truck driver’s vision. Along the same lines, the view from Don’s painting studio in Benicia, California provided the vast views of wind-swept hills, waterways, open sky, and California light that sometimes can be seen in his paintings. Some of the paintings might even suggest the hint of an exotic, fanciful or even mythical journey.
These paintings reveal the connection to 20th century modernism with respect to their abstract style and vivid coloration. For many reasons, by the turn of the 20th century western artists were abandoning the old traditional styles rooted in the attachment to realism that produced imagery based on the visual appearances of things seen in nature. This resulted in forms and figures that displayed anatomical accuracy and the illusion of three dimensionality both in the figures and in the space around the figures. 20th century artistic modernism yielded a new, more personal approach to art, without the dependence on realism seen in the art of earlier centuries. The result, as seen in the modernist paintings of Don Shields, are figures more abstract than realistic, color that is heightened and intensified, and the illusion of space, that although present, is not based on the traditional formulas of perspective. This modern approach to style can be more profoundly personal, intuitive, and emotionally expressive than what is seen in traditional art, as it flows from the inner life of the artist rather than from the traditional directive that the image should appear as a carbon copy of the visible world. Another aspect of modernism seen in Don’s paintings is the appearance of very visible brushstrokes, a quality that began to appear centuries ago in the art of the Venetian painters of the Italian Renaissance. The primacy of the paint, however, was a modern idea rooted in truth to materials, that paint should maintain its property to look like paint, and that brushstrokes should not be smoothed out to disappear as they often did in traditional art. Very visible brushstrokes, as seen in Don’s paintings, can be a vehicle for increased emotional expression, or even reflect the more child-like approach to painting that was widely admired in the 20th century because it reflected a more free-form, intuitive, even truthful expression of our inner selves.
Finally, Don once stated, “When I begin a painting, I never have a clear idea of what I’m going to paint. There is always a bit of a surprise…” This is not surprising for an artist steeped in modernism. Centuries ago, artists would spend days, months, or even years doing preparatory drawings that would lay down and secure every square inch of a composition before a brushstroke ever hit the canvas. By contrast, modern art like Don’s is about the actual process of painting, and what magic happens when brush is put to canvas and the imagination takes charge. In the paintings of Don Shields we see this magical, evocative, even whimsical world where the inner life of the artist reveals itself in imaginative, perhaps exotic, brightly colored, and expansive spaces inhabited by strange or familiar creatures that stir the imagination.
Helayna Thickpenny
Former Chair, Art and Humanities Departments
Mission College
The author would like to thank Michele Rowe-Shields for her recollections related to the art of her late husband, Don Shields.