California artist Daniel Keys started his self-training as a painter by emulating the work of renowned painter and teacher Richard Schmid. He later had the opportunity to study with Schmid directly and his style shows the influence of his admiration for Schmid’s approach.
Keys focuses primarily on still life, with occasional landscapes and figurative work. His still life paintings are colorful, vibrant and rendered with lively brushwork and loose, casual indications of backgrounds and supporting surfaces.
His work also shows the benefit of adhering to Schmid’s emphasis on traditional basics, the importance of warm and cold light, naturalistic color, control of values and sensitivity to edges.
Keys is now teaching and his web site lists workshops and events. His blog often features work that you will also find on the gallery on his site, but in many cases the images are linked to higher resolution versions than are available on the site, allowing a better look at his expressive brush handling.
Keys tries to express a spiritual aspect in his work; and the focused, refined nature of the paintings invite contemplation.
His work was recently featured in the March/April 2010 issue of Art of the West magazine.
