Lynchburg artist David Eakin has studied watercolor with Karen Bowden and Don Andrews and water media with Robert Burridge, Carole Barnes, and Vera Dickerson. Since 1999, he has studied oils with Rosalie Day White. He has been an energetic participant with the Summer Artists program at Nimrod Hall in Bath County since 2001. More recently Eakin has also begun working with gouache, an opaque water based medium and casein, a milk-based paint.  When he is not working with a brush, Eakin uses a camera with ease and certainty.  His sense of composition and design is always on alert, looking for potential subject matter. Eakin clearly enjoys traveling and often uses it as a stimulus and subject for his work.

             Sometimes he likes to exercise the logical, analytical side of his brain, recording and reporting what he sees. For these, Eakin paints realistic oil and watercolor landscapes working from both photographs and plein aire (on the site).  A walking tour of England’s Lake District and trips to Scotland provided the basis for much of this exhibit, but there are also paintings from sessions in and around   Lexington, Virginia and works made while at Nimrod Hall in Bath County.  These works are lovely – lush and filled with the distinctive light of the regions they represent.  He is especially adept and fond of painting clouds and imbues them with both a sense of reality and romanticism.

             Eakin’s paintings of Guanajuato and San Miguel, Mexico capture both the bright color and distinctive architecture of that area.  Eakin clearly enjoys traveling and uses it as a constant stimulus for his work.  However, the Guanajuato pieces also offer the viewer a “bridge” to the other side of his brain, the more abstract, intuitive work seen in the front of the gallery.

            In fact, bridges are a recurring image in the artist’s abstract acrylic work, which is often done in series.  Looking at these works together in a single space makes it easier to see how one idea leads to another for Eakin, both in terms of color and composition, and style and mood. These paintings reflect a darker, edgier and yet more vibrant side of life in the city.  Ladders are interspersed with the bridges, as if to suggest one may travel in many directions – back and forth or up and down.  Some of the works take on a surrealistic look, with multiple moons, figures meeting in unexpected places and more.  Those paintings in turn link to more figurative images such as those in the series: Gallery Talk and Masquerade series. 

The figures in the Gallery Talk are grouped together in    combinations that suggest quiet conversations about a common topic, their palette of wide ranging colors suggesting the diverse types of people who might attend such an activity.  In Masquerade, the groupings are more crowded, and the colors remind us that masks may be employed in deceit as well as playfulness.  In all of these paintings, reality is banished or hidden; the artist leaves the choice up to the viewer.  The Moon pieces border on the surrealistic and indicate that another series is on the way.

             “I’ve always had these more abstract paintings in my mind and once I retired I had more time to paint and explore more intuitive and abstract works. Bridges and ladders just kept popping up in what I was doing when not painting plein aire. Then, when I started    working with Vera [Dickerson] she really encouraged me to push that side of my work.  It all just sort of came together. Now I keep two studios, working on one style of painting in each place.  I know that sounds self-indulgent but one of them is shared space.  And having separate spaces lets me not worry about mixing two mediums that should not be mixed together. It allows my mind to go where it will.When I am in one or another I know what I’m going to work on and I don’t have to do anything but just “go!” In the end, it’s much more effective for me.  And I love both types of work – I don’t think I would ever give one up for the other,” explains the artist.

            Prior to his studies with regional and nationally known artists in independent classes and workshops, Eakin earned an Associate Fine Arts Degree at Ferrum College and a Bachelor of Fine Arts   degree at Lynchburg College. His work may be found in numerous public, private and corporate collections and has been included in numerous group and invitational exhibits.  A complete listing may be found in the black notebook in the front gallery.

            “Everybody sees something different in the acrylic and mixed media works and I like that. These paintings also begin to influence the way I use color in the oils. I am eager to see where it will all go as I continue to integrate the two sides of my brain.”

             David Eakin: Realism to Abstraction– Using Both Sides of the Brain” will continue on exhibit through noon October 8, 2011.

          The Center is open Tuesday through Saturday from January through April 10:00 am - 4:30 pm & Monday through Saturday from May through December 10:00 am – 4:30 pm.  The Alleghany Highlands Arts and Crafts Center is located at 439 E. Ridgeway Street, Clifton Forge, VA  24422.  The Center is supported by its members, contributors, the Town of Clifton Forge, City of Covington,  the County of Alleghany, The Alleghany Foundation,  The Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.