Dave Eldreth : Landscape Themes
Thursday, November 13
5pm - 8pm
David Eldreth earned a bachelor’s of Fine Art in 1967 from the Maryland Institute College of Art and spent most of his career as a teacher and potter. Having recently returned to full-time painting, Eldreth describes his work today as largely “suggestions of landscapes”
Chester County Art Association is proud to feature the work of this outstanding artist. His paintings, to be shown in his first solo show at CCAA, have a signature Eldreth "look." Created with oil on either panels or paper, his work has a distinctive appeal with its abstracted forms like trees and cornfields painted in bright hues including yellows, blues, and reds.
To some observers, Eldreth’s unique brushwork may seem to be influenced by his decades of working with salt-glazed stoneware and redware pottery. These traditional American pottery forms were typically decorated with bird or nature motifs and quickly executed by the potter during the glazing process.
Eldreth, owner of Eldreth Pottery in Lancaster County, has been using such techniques for more than 25 years.
While he concedes that there is a similarity between his painting style and the free-hand look of his pottery designs, he believes that the ties between his art and his business are largely felt in the freedom that came with the commercial success of his business.
He had time to "fool around" with painting. "When I first started painting, my work was more Chester County in style, more realistic," he said recently, "I did that for awhile and then I realized, `that's not me.'' "
Eldreth knew that painting local scenes that everyone would recognize - painting to sell, in other words, went against his nature. "I winged it for most of my life," he said, laughing at his make-do attitude and his inventive spirit.
In those early years, Eldreth dug his own clay and fashioned a potter's wheel from an old Maytag washing machine. "With a family, I felt very poor at the time," he said of launching his business while working full-time as a public school teacher in the Kennett School District..
Today, his daughter and son-in-law handle the day-to-day operations of Eldreth Pottery, leaving Eldreth to focus on his return to painting. Eldreth's former employees were supportive: they all pitched in and bought their boss a reclining chair. Eldreth now sits to paint at his easil.
