The Goldmark Cultural Center is proud to present “I am an Artist”, a pop-up exhibition featuring paintings by Goldmark artist Dalton. “I am an Artist” is on display in the Goldmark Artists’ Showcase from 31 January 2023 to 12 February 2023, with an exhibition reception on Saturday, 4 February 2023 from 1.00 - 3.00pm. Dalton will be present at the reception to respond to questions or comments about his work.
About the Exhibition
I am an artist. To me, an artist is simply one who obsesses over creation or creates for no other reason than the pleasure or need to keep creating.. And that is me. I create visual statements based primarily on how I’m feeling in the moment. Sometimes, perhaps there’s a specific thing I want to see that doesn’t quite exist outside of me yet.
Sometimes there is something beautiful I want to capture or something I want to say that simply comes across in the form of art rather than of spoken word. I try to not give everything away because then the viewer has no room to explore. And that’s simply how I do things. And that’s why the name of this show is. I am an Artist. I tend to speak aesthetically in three ways.
Abstract: I prefer thick layers of paint and texture. I adore the idea of chaos and order merging and colors exploding.
Homage to graffiti: The urban has always fascinated me. It is vibrant, busy and full of character. It’s punk music and thought provoking,
Figurative and representational: There are sometimes when I just want to capture a moment. In order to do this, you must know how to accurately and artistically represent the object or the scene that is in front of you. I get lost in process here and I allow quirks and inaccuracies to be free. And that is where my own particular style comes from.
About the Artist
Newman Dalton, or Dalton as he is called, is a self trained artist who is currently residing in the Dallas Texas area after spending roughly 15 years in Seattle. His work is heavily inspired by the great impressionists, postmodernists, post impressionists and to a lesser extent, cubists movements.
Organizations:
Dalton is a resident artist at the Goldmark Cultural Center, a member of the Craft Guild of Dallas and some of his works are hanging in The Shop Club of Dallas member areas.
How he came to his current style:
After years of struggling to be happy with his art, he began a journey of painting 10 surreal female nudes in oil. This was during the peak of the 2020 Covid pandemic. Having just moved from Seattle to Texas, he now had more space and sunshine, but no art community. So he worked alone, but did begin to meet models from all over the world virtually. This is because the figurative community that had typically been in person only, went online to survive. Through these virtual sessions working with models from all over the world - Paris, Milan, Rome, Barcelona, Perth, Pennsylvania and Northern California - Dalton began to let each painting have its own weight, its own pace, and its own level of detail or lack thereof. This series was a personal success, but left him burnt out. A family illness also weighed heavily on his mind. So he put down his brushes and decided to never paint another female figure again. It just seemed like too beautiful and happy of a thing to paint. For months, he only painted simple lines, with flowers in different stages of life and depictions of social commentary in a code that only he knew. One evening, while drinking wine and watching several Mattisse and Gauguin documentaries, he decided he wanted to start drawing the female form again. But this time he was using charcoal and soft pastels so he could move faster, he added flowers and his favorite places to the list of things he enjoyed. He then added acrylics and oils and mixed media.
2022 was a very rough year for Dalton. He spent time recovering from a back injury caused by his time in the military and he lost 3 close family members. At times, it seemed only art and prayer made sense. So he pressed on making a large body of work and galvanizing his styles.