Daniel Nowak

If there is any overarching statement about my work, it’s simply that I paint what I see or whatever might pop into my head. I am not a painter with a message. Drawing is the foundation for my painting. As Dali said, “Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.”. I work in several different styles and mediums, but my own unique style is one I can only describe as linear. I call it Daniel’s Animism, or Danimism. My paintings in this style are composed mostly of colored lines laid down in order to create the image. They say the Impressionists pursued color over line and sought to free their paintings from line. So they used patterns of color to create their images. Many of my paintings tend to do the opposite and emphasize line to create my images.
I love line, and what you can do with it. I’ve drawn pictures ever since I can remember. As a kid, I pretty much drew cartoons, hot rods, battleships, rat finks on skateboards, and other nonsense in my Boomer Boy head. Cartoons are where I started pursuing one of painting’s great conceits, the illusion of movement where none exists. Sometimes, in static two-dimensional art, we want to convey motion, be it the action of a figure, falling water, or simply the play of sunlight on the ceaseless movement of living things. Through the use of line, I often try to impart a sense of the life and movement that exist in the subject, be it the rapid beat of the salsa or the slow dance of the growing vineyard.
I started selling art in high school, with surrealistic drawings at a “head shop” in 1968! I always painted in oil, until one Christmas, my lovely photographer wife and lifetime muse Beverly bought me a set of pastels, and I fell in love with the feel of the pastel in my hand – paint I could draw with.
From 2000 to 2015, I was active in the Sacramento art scene. It was during this time that I was honored to have the pastel painting “Sonoma Vineyard with Wild Mustard” purchased by the California State Senate and ultimately included in the Permanent Collection of the California State Capitol Museum. My work can be viewed on Facebook and Etsy at artbynowak, Saatchi at Daniel Nowak, and at Jemez Fine Art.
Eight years ago, my wife and I settled into her birthplace, New Mexico. We now explore the beauty and charm of the lands and peoples in this captivatingly beautiful state. I am now trying to capture some of its essence in my New Mexico paintings.