DARRELL UNDERSCHULTZ
Darrell Underschultz was born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1965. After receiving a diploma in Fine Arts from Grant MacEwan Community College in 1986 he moved to Vancouver to continue his education at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design. After graduating from the ECCAD Graphic Design department in 1992, Darrell worked as an illustrator for several years before deciding to return to his roots as a full time painter. He currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia.
My paintings are built up of thin washes of acrylic colour, opaque at first and then transparent near the end. The transparent washes intensify the colour and luminosity, while building depth within the work.
Most pieces have up to 50 washes or layers. The canvases are delicately sanded between layers to produce an ultra smooth surface. The sanding process can also erode & distress the paint to reveal the previous layers and give the painting a slightly worn appearance. The thin washes of transparent colour created a very matte, velvety feel that can either be varnished or left as it is.
I have always found inspiration in the classic landscape paintings of the 18th and 19th centuries. For me, these works set the standard for how I view landscape paintings today. I believe that I learned to paint the way I do because of a desire to understand how it may have been done in the past.
With my work I want to create a sense of awe and beauty, but with a darker sensibility. I am marrying a romanticized past with my contemporary vision. Counterpoising a dark foreground against an illuminated skyscape is a spatial mechanism often found in my work. Depth is craeted with this technique, as well as visual tension, with areas lost or abstracted within the shadows.
There is a recurring theme of isolation tht runs through my body of work, which I believe is a direct result of growing up on the prairies of Alberta. I am not too concerned with capturing naturalistic impressions of nature, but rather with capturing a mood or a feeling. These scenes may suggest time and place, but they are not meant to be specific. I want the viewer to journey to these destinations in their imaginations. My goal is to create an emotional reflection of what I see in a sunrise, sunset, a tree or a cloud.
Dark romanticism is what I keep in mind when I am working. The forces of colour, light and shadow all play a powerful role in the creation of my work. I love that time of day when the light dims, colours deepen and details recede into darkness. The relationship between what lurks in the shadows and what is visible in the light is what I find fascinating.
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