David Grossmann | Meditations on Time

David Grossmann’s paintings capture the quality of incremental change.

By Gussie Fauntleroy

Since the birth of his son not quite two years ago, David Grossmann has heard the saying that as a parent, the days go by slowly but the years speed past. That hasn’t been the case for him—nothing about parenthood has seemed slow. “The days just fly by,” he says. “My son is a new person every day.”

The notion makes Grossmann’s unhurried, contemplative approach to painting even more important, giving him time to slow down as he applies multiple layers of paint and continually moves from one composition to another as they dry. With as many as 15 works in process at once, it can take several months to complete each piece. During that time, he witnesses and reflects on the nature of change.

Watching subtle changes in the natural world is another essential part of Grossmann’s life. Especially the sky at dawn and dusk, those in-between times when shapes dissolve into others and colors continually shift in exquisite gradations. He often sits quietly on his back porch or jogs on trails beside the Colorado River not far from his home, absorbing the sky’s unfolding transformations or watching his other favorite subject, birds.

Back in the studio, he calls on memory, imagination and the feelings he experienced outdoors. While his paintings are based on natural phenomena, including sketches made on location, the spirit of Grossmann’s work is increasingly inspired by what remains with him after he comes back inside. And clearly that connection between inner experience and the outer world finds resonance in many viewers. In recent years his art has attracted a growing number of collectors around the country and internationally, as well garnering national and regional honors.

Like in-between times of day, Grossmann found himself between cultures and languages growing up, a situation that tended to make a quiet, sensitive boy even more introspective. The son of Christian missionaries from Colorado, he lived in Chile until age 14, speaking English at home and Spanish everywhere else. But the language that has always felt most comfortable was visual, and as a child he loved spending time drawing. His parents encouraged this interest and kept art-making materials around the house for himself and his two sisters. When the family visited his grandmother, who served as art director for a small Spanish language publishing house in El Paso, Texas, she provided his first painting lessons in oils.

Just as inspiring for Grossmann was the marvel and diversity of Chile’s landscapes. For several years the family lived in the city of Arica, an oasis in one of the driest deserts on earth. Later they moved to a more temperate, central part of the country but traveled widely for his parents’ missionary work, including visits to the spectacular Andes Mountains. “I’m grateful for these experiences as a child,” he says.

In Chile, Grossmann’s parents enrolled him in art classes, and they did the same in Pueblo, Colorado, after the family returned and settled there when he was 14. He remembers art helping ground him as he struggled to integrate into American culture as a teen. “Being 14 is hard for anyone,” he says, smiling. “On top of that, trying to figure out how to exist in a new culture was difficult.” As a way of holding onto a connection with his past, when it came time for college he double majored in Spanish and business at Colorado State University in Pueblo. Not long after, however, he realized that art was the path he wanted to pursue.

He moved to Boulder to attend a classical, atelier-style art academy. During that time, he also took a plein-air painting class, which opened his eyes to the possibilities of focusing on the landscape and painting outdoors. Later he spent six months studying with Colorado landscape painter Jay Moore. Back in Pueblo, Grossmann was in his late 20s when his work began earning awards and attracting the attention of galleries and collectors.

Now 39, the artist lives with his wife, Kristy, and young son, Teddy, in Grand Junction, where his studio is a light-filled utilitarian space with as few distractions as possible. “Especially in this season of life, I need to learn to focus with the time I have,” he says. “As soon as I step out of my studio, I’m in the laundry room, and there’s always a new load of diapers to wash.” Helping give him more studio time, his parents live nearby and care for Teddy three days a week, while Kristy works four days a week as a family physician.

Grossmann has enlisted family in other ways as well. His father builds frames, and his mother applies gilding to them. His father also assists with the time-consuming process of preparing painting surfaces—cutting wood panels, adhering a layer of linen, and then applying several coats of gesso, sanding between each layer. “I’ve always loved experimenting with surface textures,” the artist says. “The weave of the linen shows through to some extent. It’s almost a woven look.”

Starting with sketches and small color studies, Grossmann sets down an initial idea by applying a fairly thick layer of paint. Then, over the days and weeks, he lightly drags other colors across the surface, allowing the almost-textile-like patterns from underlying layers to show through. The result is a subtle mingling of hues, reflecting the reality that in nature nothing contains just one color. The process also has an unpredictable quality the artist enjoys. “There’s a sense of unexpectedness built into the texture that keeps me engaged,” he says. “As I redefine the image, it goes back to the initial idea, but in its own way.”

Living close to a river and under the flight path of major bird migrations, Grossmann has ample opportunity to watch changes in both sky and bird activity over the course of days and seasons. With RIVER FLIGHT IN WINTER COLORS, he captures a sense of timeless stillness in the water and sky at dusk or dawn, contrasted by the flight of geese. As he learns more about birds, he says, he is struck by the deep interconnectedness of species and environment and the impact of human activity on both. While the drop in bird populations is heartbreaking to him, despite some stories of returning numbers, he resonates with cultures and times around the world where birds have been regarded as symbols of happiness and hope. Even a fragile hope is essential to human life, he says.

It’s no surprise that glimpses of birds are present in much of Grossmann’s work. In the triptych SKY SHAPES, distant flocks appear through the trees near the bottom of the two outer panels, suggesting morning and evening flights. The three panels, with their vertical format and rich colors, call to mind for the painter a visual parallel to stained glass. It’s an intentional reference to the sacredness of both churches and the natural world. “When I’m in the forest I feel in a way very similar to being in a cathedral,” he says, adding that this feeling has developed into “an exploration of what it means for a place to be sacred, to be a sanctuary, a place of protection. I think about all this as I work.”

Along with river trails and his own backyard garden, places where Grossmann can go when parenting limits his outdoor time, the massive, high altitude, lake-strewn forested landform of Grand Mesa is only an hour away. He delights in spending time there in every season, often painting and sketching. From home he also loves watching the light slowly fall and shadows rise along Grand Mesa’s enormous western flank as the sun goes down. It’s a meditative experience, with similarities to the quiet, thoughtful process of watching a painting emerge, he says. “I hope that feeling comes through in the final piece.”

Colorado-based Gussie Fauntleroy writes for a variety of art publications and is the author of three books on visual artists. Learn more at www.gussiefauntleroy.com.

contact information
davidgrossmann.com

representation
Altamira Fine Art, Jackson, WY, & Scottsdale, AZ, altamiraart.com.
Gallery 1261, Denver, CO, gallery1261.com.
Jonathan Cooper Gallery, London, jonathancooper.co.uk.
Maxwell Alexander Gallery, Pasadena, CA, maxwellalexandergallery.com.
Simpson Gallagher Gallery, Cody, WY, simpsongallaghergallery.com.

upcoming shows
Naturalism Now, group show, Gallery 1261, December 8-29.
Art Fair: The Winter Show, Jonathan Cooper Gallery booth, New York, NY, January 19-28.
Grand Re-Opening, group show, Maxwell Alexander Gallery, opens January 27.
Solo show, Jonathan Cooper Gallery, June 1-July 2.

This story appeared in the December 2023/January 2024 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Subscribe today to read every issue in its entirety.