David Yapp-landscape artist Artist Statement I grew up in rural southern England. My youth was spent exploring and observing nature and the changing scenery, seasons and weather patterns of my home county of Wiltshire. The landscapes and towns of the county are rich in history and have fed the artistic hearts and minds of artists such as Sir John Constable and J. M. W. Turner and writers such as Thomas Hardy and George Herbert. Since moving to California in 2001, I predominantly paint plein air, directly on location, working in oils. I work using a combination of palette knives and brushes. The paint is applied with a combination of thin passages of color and thick impasto. Often this is further worked into with a sgraffito technique-scratching back the paint to reveal the tinted ground of the canvas beneath. This may then have further paint applied to create a multi-layered relief to the painting. The application of the paint in this way enables me to create a sense of depth and movement within the painting and so capture what is to me the essence of a particular landscape and my emotional response to it. The work of Canadian artist, Tom Thomson, the American Western landscape painters such as William Wendt and Edgar Payne, and that of Post-Impressionist, Vincent Van Gogh are strong influences for me. You can see David's work from November 4-5 in Camino, CA | 
