1965–
What do you get when you blend Impressionism, the best-loved painting mode of Western art history, with the 2,000-year-old artistic traditions of the East? The vibrant and original “Intense Impressionism” of Daniel Wall, who celebrates the joy and love of American life in brilliant colors and bold textures.
Leaping from the wall with all the optical power of bright reds and golds, Wall’s many-hued floral still lifes, iridescent butterflies, vibrant cityscapes, and celebrations of American icons such as the Statue of Liberty and Old Glory have delighted art lovers internationally. He is so popular that his paintings were featured in the Petalpalooza Festival, the annual celebration of cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C. that is attended by hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
A major theme of Wall’s work is his love of America. His own inspirational story of coming to America reads like one of the great literary classics of Asian literature, beloved by children and by adults alike and made into countless movies, the epic Journey to the West. Today he is a proud United States citizen, but his journey was a long and colorful one. Born in a remote Chinese village in 1965, at age 4 he started drawing using the sticks of chalk and pencils that his aunt, an elementary school teacher, brought home, under the watchful eye of his mother, a talented self-taught artist. He passed the highly competitive entrance examination to get a scholarship to the local teachers college when he was only 16, and then went on to study fine arts at the provincial university in Shandong, the mountainous province that was home to Confucius, China’s greatest philosopher. He found work as an illustrator and the arts editor of a magazine, a job that sharpened his skills as a graphic thinker.
READ MORE +In 1995, Wall and his wife arrived in the United States to pursue their graduate degrees. He earned a Master’s in mathematics with computer science concentration from Georgia Southern University, but instead of pursuing a career in this field, he pursued his lifelong passion and became a full-time artist. He quickly gained an audience for his accessible and life-affirming works. He traveled widely to gather his subject matter and new ideas for painting, including not only Florida and the deep South but frequent trips to Italy. Today he and his family, including his daughter, live in North Carolina.
While still in China and teaching art, Wall like so many others was enchanted by Impressionism, in particular the irresistible art of Claude Monet. To demonstrate the brushstrokes and use of light, he would imitate Monet’s technique for his students to follow. He realized that the realistic colors that Monet used to match what he saw hour by hour in nature could be boosted in intensity, making them more attuned to the intensity of life in our own world today. Combining Monet’s reliance on the palette knife to apply oil paint and the “dry-brush” techniques that are part of the training in calligraphy that all Chinese artists pursue, Wall began painting in the high-toned, exciting style for which he is renowned today. The positive reception was immediate.
Like Impressionism in its traditional sense, Wall’s paintings are characterized by bold, gestural brushstrokes and dramatic use of impasto, which he applies with the palette knife rather than brushes, down to the tiniest details. In addition to Monet, you can see the influence on his work of Camille Pissarro and Georges Seurat, who similarly found ways to turn loose the energy of color. As the artist himself comments, “I use different colors and different shaped trees to make my paintings colorful and beautiful to inspire people to appreciate the beauty of life,” Wall says. “I want the bright colors to inspire people to feel that every day is a good day.”
Accomplishments
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