Don T O’Bannon

Don T O’Bannon
www.obannonstudios.com https://www.facebook.com/obannonstudios/

About the Artist

I have always loved art and the challenge of painting a three dimensional image on a two dimensional surface. I started drawing when I was old enough to hold a pencil and have continued to sketch and paint throughout most of my childhood and early adolescence. I have an affinity for interesting faces and landscapes. I feel like I have come full circle form those early years when my highest inspiration was to be an artist. I have always collected black art and surrounded myself with paintings, prints, and lithographs from a wide variety of classical and contemporary artists, Pablo Picasso, John Biggers and Jacob Lawrence.

Some of my earlier paintings use black, grey, and white colors in oil, sometimes with a touch of color, to produce powerful images rich in texture and expression. I am prolific and simply cannot spend enough time painting to satisfy my passion. A professional artist once told me it was like communicating with God and not to be melodramatic, I think he is right. You take a blank piece of canvas and over time, an image emerges from that canvas reflecting a vibrant vision of life. I paint not only because I love art but like breathing, I paint because it taps into my creative life force and enhances the quality of my life.

In 2013, while visiting Paris on my honeymoon, I saw a picture of Louie Armstrong and upon returning home searched every source I could think of for a copy of the image. Unsuccessful in my attempt to locate a copy, I decided to reproduce the image myself adding my own interpretation and my journey began. It was like reuniting with an old and familiar friend that you have not seen in years. I rediscovered a part of myself that had been locked away and a breath of new life seemed to reinvigorate me as I sat down in front of the easel and began to paint. I recreated a new and different image of Louie Armstrong and rekindled a passion, I had long thought forgotten.

	Louis Armstrong Artist: Don T O’Bannon
	Thurgood Marshall Artist: Don T O’Bannon
	Chesapeake Bay Artist: Don T O’Bannon