MuraLove Submission: Daniel Nowak

Daniel Nowak, Painter
I’ve drawn pictures ever since I can remember. As a kid, I pretty much drew cartoons – Disney and Looney Tunes characters, warplanes in combat, Ratfinks and dragsters. Later, when I tackled more sophisticated subject matter, it was always with pencil or graphite or charcoal, very timid and safe.
By the time I got out of High School I had learned to draw, paint with watercolor and oil, stretch canvases, throw pots, fire, glaze, and sculpt with clay, make paper, carve wood, make woodcut prints, and cast aluminum sculptures. In college I took all the advanced drawing classes offered, and later some advanced painting and art history classes. But I have no degree in art, so I guess I’m “self-taught“. I dallied with my art, and didn’t start painting in earnest until my lovely wife and lifetime muse bought me a set of pastels, a medium which I had never explored before. Just the feel of the pastel in my hand made me feel at home.
The pastel is still probably my favorite painting medium in spite of the difficulty a work in pastel presents. They are easily ruined and expensive to frame, but a work in pastel is worth the trouble. It has a look and feel that can be achieved in no other medium. My pastels are intended to invoke the movement of a dynamic universe where nothing is ever still and quiet.
Pastels have also changed the way I approach other mediums. The past few years, I have returned to my roots in oil painting. There’s something about the weight and substance of oil paint and canvas, especially in painting landscapes, that adds gravity and matter to the work. It is very much in contrast with the lightness and liveliness I find in pastels. So my work in oil tends to be the counter-point, more static and peaceful and permanent – the Earth abides.
To me, oils and pastels are the Yin and Yang of entropy, the balance in my fine art universe.
The third dimension of my experience with mediums comes from my decades of work as a building restoration, waterproofing and painting contractor. This painting world involves acrylic concrete coatings, architectural coatings, caulking and sealants, epoxies and various other materials, which I now use for exterior murals and decorations. I also create framed hanging paintings that are suitable for the outside. My contractor painting and my fine art painting have now blended.
I used to say that I’d been drawing on California since 1965 and that I’m the most famous artist you never heard of. From 1998 to 2005, I was active in the Sacramento art scene with a variety of group shows, individual shows, and galleries. It was during this time that I was honored to have the pastel painting “Sonoma Vineyard With Wild Mustard” purchased by the California State Senate. It has now been included in the Permanent Collection of the California State Capitol Museum. This collection of mostly historic paintings is intended to “evoke the ’essence’…and reflect the distinctive geography and people that are California.” I hope some of my paintings lived up to that. Now I’m transplanted to New Mexico and I intend to draw on it for a while. I am terrifically excited to now have the opportunity to explore the essence of the lands and peoples of New Mexico.