Based in New York and Massachusetts, David Skillicorn has been creating luminous abstract paintings for more than twenty-five years. He explores complex spatial and color relationships through the use of texture, organic lines, and sensuous fields of color. In mixed media works on canvas, Skillicorn creates sophisticated, intuitive paintings alive with surface texture, and lush paint of vibrant colors in bold strokes over atmospheric passages.

Skillicorn's life as a visual artist began with extensive work with video in the late 1970s, leading to an earlier career as a multiple Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker. His visual vocabulary deepened through those years while filming more than a million images across a wide spectrum of cultures and landscapes in more than forty countries. His intensive experiences filming the textures of culture, color, and landscape throughout the world have had a lasting impact on his visual sensibilities and inform the unique visual language he has brought to his work as an abstract painter for the past twenty-five years.

Skillicorn shows his work regularly at premiere galleries throughout the country and his paintings are part of innumerable public and private collections, including Johns Hopkins, Regent Hotel, Intel, Temple University, and many others


In his words:


"I am drawn to abstract painting because it is the most challenging, holds the most mystery for me, and in the end, the most magic. In the simplest of terms, the work is a celebration of pure color, texture, and form. For me, these paintings are not "about" something, or "art objects" per se, as much as they are an opportunity to set in motion the imagination in the viewer and trigger an emotional response. ​ I believe that through focused intensive engagement while making a painting, it is possible to imbibe it somehow with a residue of spirit, an intangible essence that gives the work a sense of presence. This can be felt by a sensitive viewer and moves the work toward the realm of art, as opposed to decoration or craft. It's a prospect worth pursuing with each and every painting. My process is one of applying paint liberally, carving and digging back into it, and building up layers. Through this process of application and excavation, I would say that I “find” a painting as much as “make” it. The whole time I am utterly engaged and letting my intuition be the primary driving force, although I am also using my training and experience to make hundreds and hundreds of decisions along the way as well. Openness and freedom are the key. I know the work is done when I stand back and it hits me all at once as being resolved visually and having a strong sense of presence about it. In the end, I hope the work conveys something that is not so much experienced with the mind, as felt with the body....    in an intimate, visceral, and contemplative way.."

DAVID SKILLICORN

Botanica 27-2 by David Skillicorn

Curators who have selected Skillicorn’s paintings for inclusion in exhibitions include:

Carl Belz, Director Emeritus The Rose Art Museum Brandeis University

Ian Berry, Curator Tang Art Museum Saratoga Springs NY

Julie Burros, Chief of Arts and Culture, City of Boston

Mim Brooks Fawcett, Director Attleboro Arts Museum

Adrian Tio, Dean of College of VIsual Arts Umass Dartmouth

Jessica Roscio, Curator of the Danforth Art Museum

Lisa Crossman, Fitchburg Art Museum

Beth Urdang, Beth Urdang Gallery, Boston

Marni Elyse Katz, art curator/author

Leonie Bradbury, Director of Art and Creative Initiatives - HUBweek Boston

Rosemary Tracy Woods, Art for the Soul Gallery

artist STatement

I am drawn to abstract painting because it is the most challenging, holds the most mystery for me, and in the end, the most magic. In the simplest of terms, the work is a celebration of pure color, texture and form. For me, these paintings are not "about" something, or "art objects" per se, as much as they are an opportunity to set in motion the imagination in the viewer, and trigger an emotional response.

I believe that through focused intensive engagement while making a painting, it is possible to imbibe it somehow with a residue of spirit, an intangible essence that gives the work a sense of presence. This can be felt by a sensitive viewer and moves the work toward the realm of art, as opposed to decoration or craft. It's a prospect worth pursuing with each and every painting.

​My process is one of applying paint liberally, carving and digging back into it, and building up layers. Through this process of application and excavation I would say that I “find” a painting as much as “make” it. The whole time I am utterly engaged and letting my intuition be the primary driving force, although I am also using my training and experience to make hundreds and hundreds of decisions along the way as well. Openness and freedom are the key.

I know the work is done when I stand back and it hits me all at once as being resolved visually and having a strong sense of presence about it. In the end, I hope the work conveys something that is not so much experienced with the mind, as felt with the body.... in an intimate, visceral, and contemplative way. ​