Rising Stars: Meet Dan Finnell

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Finnell.

Hi Dan, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
As a licensed architect turned creator specializing in watercolor following a move to the midwest in 2017. It took a year before the brushes got wet and started to fling pigment.

What has kept me going for over 3 years now was an idea that I told my wife about to hold myself accountable called Watercolor Wednesday in that every Wednesday I would release a new watercolor online thereby forcing me to show up and do the work and growth. This recent week marked Watercolor Wednesday #160.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
An internal obstacle along the way… Facing my fear of painting people & portraits.

Reason – We all know what people are supposed to look like proportionally, anatomically, skin tones, etc., in other words, we’re incredibly familiar with them. My style has always lent itself to a more realistic vs. the abstract, so if a pupil is slightly off then it becomes very evident very quickly and seems out of place.

The improvisation in each painting commands a respect for the medium and its ever-changing characteristics.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I leave behind a visible emotion in the pigment of each work.

Most of us have played around with watercolor either in our youth, in school, or in some other capacity. We find out that watercolor fights back it refuses to be controlled it wrinkles the paper, it runs. Other factors that contribute to its temperamental behavior are gravity, timing, atmosphere, clarity of the water, staining vs. nonstaining pigments the list can go on. Watercolor is not a common medium. Most will or have given up on it, as they become discouraged with the results as we have become more and more expectant on immediate success or immediate gratification in our work, in our hobbies, in our lives.

Don’t quit…

That’s easy to say and harder to do. Coming from a background in architecture I’ve always enjoyed the technical aspects of creating through actual hand drawing… point, line, and the plane where a grand vision could be cast early on. However, the longer I stayed with that career path the more I lost touch with the human touch of creating. Everything became about the computer program, its rendering capabilities, and the line you drew no longer mattered as it was just a keystroke easily replaced by either a client’s whim or that of my own.

This lateral shift in career paths has allowed me to bring that attention to detail to a creative outlet that demands honing of the skill to create something beautiful. Something handmade in a world that is becoming more and more digital. There’s a precise moment when the water has evaporated and the pigment has settled and blended with another pigment to create a new color, a new hue, a new gradation that you’ve never seen before and don’t think that you could recreate it if you tried but you had hoped and planned for that interaction to occur.

That is the human moment of delicacy with watercolor that brings a huge smile to my face. There’s a little bit of letting go that you have to do with watercolor, it forces you to trust the process. Jokingly no one has ever asked me to move a door 3 inches in a painting.

I’ve seen different levels of value emerge through this process but most notably the value of myself and the gratitude I have to create these moments that would not exist had I quit… as I said before, don’t quit.

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I believe I am still seeking a mentor within this realm of creativity. There are many artists in which I admire their work, their style, their ability to have a golden thread that ties everything together. Perhaps that’s part of my current search in that I’m still seeking that golden thread as my technique, style, and interests continue to expand and evolve.

Pricing:

• Work is priced by the square inch including the custom framing I build in-house. Ranges between $300 – $2,500
• Custom commissions are also accepted, feel free to contact me to discuss ideas, sizing, and prices.
• All work is original only, with no reproductions, prints, or lithographs.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.thedanfinnellstudio.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedanfinnellstudio/
• Facebook: thedanfinnellstudio
• Twitter: @finnell_dan