David Burge

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Wendy - oil and charcoal - 60 x 60 cm

I've got a number of "mates" down in Oz by this time, but the one I first really hit it off with is David Burge, aka Dake. I made instant friends with Dake about five years ago on a popular art forum when he told me he "hated" one of my paintings. It happened to be my best painting up to that point, but I digress... :) I thought "now there's a guy I can trust," and we've been trusting each other since.

Dake fronted some bands, and I believe that experience influences his art. He is also a wizard with words, and writes some of the most exhilirating art opinions out there, soaring from the subversive to the sublime. (he was banned from that art forum, btw, a special distinction I've always envied) I started referring to him as The Thunder From Down Under. So he wields a mean guitar, a pointed pen, and a velvet brush. Painting mostly in watermedia, Dake's work covers primarily figurative and landscape pieces, with series of dancers (Swan Lake at left), blues artists, window reflections, portrait commissions, and still lifes, in addition to some oil, silverpoint, and photography. Recent work shown on his blog reflects an interest in Aboriginal art.

It's hard to know what to post when writing about a favorite artist - there's too much to choose from, and you run the risk of disappointing somebody, very likely the artist! Anyway, I'm posting some of my favorite pieces of Dake's that I admire for their sheer pictorial brilliance and diversity. Such as the portrait up top, Wendy. Not like his watercolors, but one of my favorites -- I love the palette, the stark haunting mood and Picassoesque drawing.

More people probably know David Burge for the beautiful nudes he has painted in watercolor, achieving a wet-in-wet approach that shows the medium and the artist at their most sensual. They can be seen on his website, but figures also show up in a series depicting juxtaposed reflections, logos, and mannequins in downtown windowscapes. One of them, Brides By Design won a City of Melville Art Award, and is also in the Shanghai Zhujiajiao International Watercolor Biennale. Another of the series, King Street Reflections won top watercolor award at City of Melville the year before. All of the pieces in that series are fantastic, I could never pick a favorite...but one of them would have to be Skiva, Forrest Chase, Perth, watercolor 56x76 cm. (left).

Just messing around in oil he does stuff like these incredible pears.

Some of his best portraits are of musicians and writers -- I won't forget the first time I saw his portrait of Norman Mailer, and the bluesmen can be urban and gritty, or smooth and sultry. Aubrey Beardsley (56 x 76 cm, left) captures the outrageous personality in a way the illustrator might have approved. There are a number of creative and delicate portraits of Dake's children and commissions of others on his website. From time to time the artist shows early work, or examples from an erotic series, all fascinating excursions into his high-voltage mind. My first stop in Oz will be Perth, Western Australia, a million miles away from anything, really, but the domain of the Thunder, and by definition base camp for cool. So cool, one might even say, in the words of the man himself.....chilling!

David Burge website and blog.