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| Untitled by Daniel Sprick, 2006, 24 x 24, oil painting. |
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Daniel Sprick: Weekend With the Masters Instructor
Daniel Sprick was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. He studied
at the Froman School of Art and The National Academy of Design and received his
B.F.A. from University of Northern Colorado in 1978.
His love of drawing and the development of his oil painting
techniques began at the age of 4, with influences stemming as far back as
Robert Campin and Roger van de Weyden. Sprick has had numerous solo
exhibitions, participated in many group exhibitions, and has his work in
private and public collections throughout the United States and abroad.
"This artist has produced paintings about the process of
contemplation, the odd associations one makes, and the way one's inner world
may spontaneously ignite as a result of one's prolonged interaction with a
fixed subject," wrote Dorothy Spears in a 2001 issue of American Artist. "In order to grant himself this inner freedom, all
the external aspects of his environment need to be tightly controlled. Only
then will structure yield to crystalline vision."
Although Sprick shies from discussing a codified iconography
for his paintings, he is indebted to earlier masters. The painters of the
Northern Renaissance, Robert Campin (the Master of Flémalle), Roger van der
Weyden, Hugo van der Goes, the van Eyck brothers- Jan and/or Hubert- "leave me
feeling both helpless and empowered," Sprick says. So does Giovanni Bellini's
almost hallucinatory style. The archaic and modern qualities that seem to
converge so effortlessly in the works of these early painters continue to
fascinate Sprick.
He admires the ability for these artists to create a
believable look at invisible realms and supernatural happenings. For example,
the miracle depicted in Jan van Eyck's Virgin and Child with the Chancellor
Rolin (1433-34) occurs in a luxurious room but is ignored by two passer-bys
seen through the balcony window. Such tangible yet elusive apparitions live on
in secular form in Sprick's vision of a hovering egg in Flora Spirited, or in
the artists' own shadowy personal appearance reflected in a mirror in All We
See or Seem.
Sprick has been the subject of feature articles in American Artist and Southwest Art magazines and is represented by Arcadia Fine Arts, in
New York City; and Gallery 1261, in Denver, Colorado. For more information on
Sprick, visit his website.
Return to the Weekend With the Masters Meet & Greet.