I had the honor of being an artist in residence at the Lucid Arts Foundation in Inverness, CA for the month of September.  Below is a short recap of my time there.

The Ark Studio Gordon Onslow Ford was part of the early Surrealist group that included André Breton, Roberto Matta, Yves Tanguy among others.  He spent time in the British Navy in the late 1930's and after eventually settling in Inverness, CA in 1960, he had an architect design his studio and home to feel like the inside of a hull of a ship. Onslow Ford passed in 2003 and the Lucid Foundation was created to preserve and manage the estate of the late painter. The "Ark" studio sits at the edge of a canyon that overlooks Mt. Vision and this is where I worked for three weeks.

You can learn a lot about an artist by how their studio is set up. Drips from Onslow Ford's brush still reside on the hearth of the fireplace, his painted fingerprints linger on the bannister of the catwalk where he would look down on works in progress.

I arrived with only the intention of embracing the uninterrupted time to work and continue to expand and refine the visual language in the paintings. There is an intimacy to working in another artist's studio and I felt a kinship with Onslow Ford's process of discovery.  I did my best to channel some of that energy into my own paintings.

While the paintings continue to reflect the tumultuous state of the global climate crisis and our relationship to the natural world, I tried to push the work into new territory and follow some impulses that had been percolating for the last few years.

After three weeks I was able to finish several new paintings and seed some ideas for myself to develop further upon returning to Oakland. This time was a gift, courtesy in no small part of my lovely wife who held down the fort with the kids like a champ while I was away. Thank you for supporting and following my work over the years. It means a lot knowing I have such a strong community of friends and family who have my back on this wild journey. I will let you know when my next exhibition is scheduled. In the meantime, please share this with any of your friends who you think might be interested.  You can also follow my public art projects and the latest studio work on Instagram @davidburke_studio.