Show Preview | Greenberg Fine Art: David Bottini

Santa Fe, NM, July 20-31

David Bottini, Park Side Afternoon, Late October, diptych, acrylic, 60 x 72.

This story was featured in the July 2012 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Order the Southwest Art magazine July 2012 print edition here, or purchase the Southwest Art magazine July 2012 digital download here. Or simply click here to subscribe to Southwest Art magazine and never miss a story!

Luminous landscapes by David Bottini are the main attraction in Nature’s  Alluring Light, a show on view at Greenberg Fine Art July 20-31. The gallery, which is located on Santa Fe’s Canyon Road, presents 14 brand-new works by the Pennsylvania artist. The show opens with a reception on July 20 from 5 to 7 p.m., at which visitors can greet and speak with the artist.

Bottini’s canvases depict sweeping seasonal landscapes that fairly shimmer with color and light. “The show is all about the beauty David finds in nature,” observes gallery owner Mark Greenberg. “People feel they can just walk right into his scenes.” He notes that people “stop dead in their tracks” when they come into the gallery and first see Bottini’s large, arresting canvases. “He works in a large format,” Greenberg points out. “Collectors who know art are drawn especially to his technical capabilities.”

More than likely, they are also drawn to the sheer beauty of his atmospheric work. “This is a cohesive group of paintings,” explains Bottini, who lives in the rolling farmlands of central Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna Valley. “The show continues my fascination with stillness and being alone in nature.” Bottini employs the recurring motif of a path to establish what he describes as movement and conveyance. Throughout his large canvases, various pathways meander through woods and fields, leading the eye back into the painting. “I like the idea of wandering,” he says. “People who view my work tell me specific stories about paths in their lives. I want my paintings to take viewers into their own narratives.”

Bottini refers to his work as sharp-focus romanticism. “I use a saturated palette,” he says. “My paintings are highly stylized. I exaggerate curves and hillsides, which adds a psychological element.” A diptych titled PARK SIDE AFTERNOON, LATE OCTOBER, which is one of the new pieces for this show, illustrates Bottini’s affection for strong colors and woodsy settings. “It’s a full-tilt, over-the-top, yellow-orange palette,” he says of this dramatic autumnal scene. “I did tons of preliminary sketches and took hundreds of photographs.” The path leads the eye from the strikingly bold oranges in the foreground into the pale blue-gray of the sky in the distance. “It’s that punch of complements,” says Bottini—and the sheer size of the work adds its own punch at a staggering 60 by 72 inches.

Bottini, who has a master of fine arts degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design, has been painting professionally full-time for the past eight years. He taught art at independent secondary schools and community colleges for more than 20 years. The artist also spent three years on the advisory board for the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. But his interest in art reaches far back into his childhood. “I started taking adult art classes at the age of 10,” he recalls. And it was Bottini’s grandfather, Gabriel Bottini, who instilled in him a love of nature when he was only a child. Today Bottini signs all of his works “Gabriel,” a loving nod to this late Italian grandfather. —Mark Mussari

contact information
505.955.1500
www.greenbergfineart.com

Featured in the July 2012 issue of Southwest Art magazine–click below to purchase:
Southwest Art magazine July 2012 digital download
Southwest Art magazine July 2012 print edition
Or click here to subscribe to Southwest Art magazine and never miss a story!