David Cunningham is a contemporary American realist painter originally from Tennessee and now living in Indianapolis.
Cunningham practices a crisp, sharply focused realism, concentrating on still life and blending over into trompe l’oiel.
His still life paintings begin with carefully arranged tableaux of personal objects, chosen both for personal meaning and, I would think, as a challenge the artist poses for himself to handle not only complex compositions but a variety of surfaces, colors, shapes and textures.
It’s easy to miss the fact that there are additional galleries of still life on his site (linked with page-bottom text links) here and here.
I doubt if Cunningham deliberately set out to work in trompe l’oiel, as it feels like a natural progression from his keenly observed and meticulously handled still life subjects.
There is also a page of drawings, many of which, unfortunately, are not linked to larger images. I might wish for larger images all around, actually. It would be nice to see his precise handling of both drawing and painting media in more detail.
Cunningham is also a professor of art at Franklin College, and there are some pages of drawings and paintings by his students posted on the site.
(Suggestion for this post courtesy of Tim Allen)
