John
Davison / Past Work
1977-1997
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Drawings 1977-1981
In 1978 I moved
from Southern California to Kauai, Hawaii.
At the time I was making color pencil
drawings on paper like these. I was
attracted to exotic figures and locales,
and borrowed images from magazines and old
photographs.
On Kauai, images
from my sketch books began to appear in my
drawings, such as the banyan root patterns
from Lawai Kai valley, or the rock outcrop
on Nounou Mountain that reminded me of a
gargoyle head.
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Untitled color pencil, 16"
x 22", 1977 © John Davison
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Untitled
color pencil, 12" x 17", 1978, private
collection© John Davison
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"Lawai
Kai Dream," color pencil, 15" x 19",1980, private
collection © John Davison
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"Gargoyle," color pencil, 15" x
19", 1981, private collection © John
Davison
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Watercolors 1981-1983
In the early
eighties I began to work more in
watercolor, focusing on the landscape and
elements from my life on Kauai.
"To The Sea," at
right, was the first piece of mine to be
purchased by the Hawaii State Foundation
on Culture and the Arts.
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"To The Sea," watercolor,
10.5" x 13", 1981, collection HSFCA ©
John Davison
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"Three
Papayas," watercolor, 11" x 24", 1981,
private collection © John Davison
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"Pakala," watercolor, 20" x 16",
1982,
private collection © John Davison
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"Passing
Rain," watercolor, 9" x 16", 1983,
private collection© John Davison
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Site
Series 1982-1983
The "Site" pieces
were a series of color pencil drawings and
watercolors that documented various
shoreline structures found along the east
side of Kauai, from wartime concrete
bunkers to more recent and temporary
constructions.
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"Site 2-D," color pencil,
22" x 18", 1983 © John Davison
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"Site
2-C," color pencil, 18" x 22", 1983 © John
Davison
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"Site,"
color pencil, 18" x 22", 1983 © John
Davison
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"Structure," color pencil, 16" x
20", 1983© John Davison
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Watercolors 1983
Part of a series
of landscape watercolors that were
included in my first one-man show on
Kauai, along with the Canyon Lines series
next.
Landscape has
become my primary focus, and watercolor
would continue to be my main medium until
the late eighties.
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"Dark Ridge II,"
watercolor, 9" x 12", 1983, private
collection © John Davison
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"Big
Horizon," watercolor, 20" x 24", 1983, private
collection © John Davison
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"Moon
Sea Shadow," watercolor, 20" x 24", 1983 ©
John Davison
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"Evening
Rain," watercolor, 20" x 24", 1983, private
collection© John Davison
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Canyon Lines Series
1983-1984
"Canyon Lines"
was a series of watercolors inspired by
the patterns and landforms of Waimea
Canyon on Kauai.
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"Canyon Lines #8,"
watercolor, 20" x 24", 1984, private
collection © John Davison
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"Canyon
Lines #3," watercolor, 20" x 24", 1983 © John
Davison
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"Canyon
Lines #11," watercolor, 20" x 24", 1984 © John
Davison
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"Canyon
Lines #13," watercolor, 20" x 24", 1984, private
collection© John Davison
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Forests and Stones
1984-1985
The view from my
back window into a dense hau tangle,
became "Forest/Light," (at right), the
first in a series of watercolors based on
the rhythms and patterns of island
forests.
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"Forest/Light,"
watercolor, 21" x 25", 1984, private
collection© John Davison
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"Silent
Arrangement," watercolor, 22" x 30", 1984, private
collection © John Davison
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"Presence," watercolor, 22" x 30",
1985 © John Davison
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"Existence," watercolor, 22" x 30",
1985, private collection© John Davison
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Dog
series 1984-1985
The "Dog" series
of watercolors were painted roughly
concurrent with the Forest/Stone series.
My dog appears in them.
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"Dreamer," watercolor, 22"
x 30", 1985, HSFCA collection © John
Davison
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"Castaway," watercolor,
22" x 30", 1985 © John Davison
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"Runner," watercolor, 22"
x 30", 1985 © John Davison
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Watercolors 1987-1988
I was painting
fairly realistic (for me) watercolors at
this time just prior to shifting to a new
medium and a more abstract view of
landscape.
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"The Point," watercolor,
22" x 30", 1988, private collection©
John Davison
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"The
Tall Coast," watercolor, 22" x 30", 1987, private
collection© John Davison
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"Sea
Tree," watercolor, 22" x 30", 1987, private
collection© John Davison
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"The
Pool," watercolor, 22" x 30", 1987, private
collection© John Davison
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Acrylic on paper
1987-1988
These paintings
are from a series of small acrylic works
on paper that signaled, along with a new
medium, a new direction toward a more
abstracted view of landscape.
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"Near Sunset," acrylic on
paper, 11" x 15", 1988, private collection
© John Davison
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"Nightfall," acrylic on paper, 11"
x 15", 1987, private collection © John
Davison
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"One
Day's Walk," acrylic on paper, 11" x 15", 1988,
private collection© John Davison
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"From
The Sky," acrylic on paper, 11" x 15", 1988,
private collection © John Davison
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Acrylic on paper 1990
These five works,
all from 1990, are representative of the
direction my work took during the early
nineties toward a more abstracted and
stylized approach to the landscape of
Kauai.
Occasionally
travel and other influences found their
way into my work. "The Messengers," below
left, was inspired by trips to the
southwest, and the native American
pictographs found on remote canyon
walls.
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"Branching Rhythm,"
acrylic on paper, 22" x 30", 1990, private
collection© John Davison
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"The
Messengers," acrylic on paper, 22" x 30", 1990
© John Davison
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"Ridge
and Clouds," acrylic on paper, 22" x 30", 1990,
private collection© John Davison
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"The
Valley Light," acrylic on paper, 15" x 11", 1990,
private collection© John Davison
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"Evening
Ridge," acrylic on paper, 22" x 30", 1990, HSFCA
collection © John Davison
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Broken Shell series
1991
Though I was now
mainly painting in acrylic, I still
returned to watercolor occasionally for
smaller works, and the "Broken Shell"
pieces were definitely the smallest. These
were actual size watercolor studies of
broken shells, with most no larger than 3
inches.
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"Shell Study (Broken
Cowry)," watercolor, 3.5" x 2.5", 1991,
private collection collection © John
Davison
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"Shell Study (Chambers),"
watercolor, 2.5" x 2.5", 1991 © John
Davison
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Acrylic paintings
1993-1994
I continued to
work through the nineties primarily in
acrylic on paper and canvas inspired as
always by the natural surroundings of my
island home.
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"First Swell," acrylic on
paper, 22" x 30", 1994, HSFCA collection
© John Davison
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"Surge,"
acrylic on paper, 11" x 15", 1993, private
collection ©John Davison
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"Canyon's End," acrylic on paper,
30" x 22", 1994, private collection © John
Davison
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"First
Light," acrylic on paper, 30" x 22", 1994, private
collection© John Davison
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Acrylic on canvas 1992-1997
By the
mid-nineties I was doing do more and
larger works on canvas. The ridges and
rugged valleys of Na Pali coast became a
prominent theme, as I continued to kayak
and camp the coast several times every
summer.
This
ends the section on past work.
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"Towards Kalalau," acrylic
on canvas, 48" x 52", 1997, First Hawaiian
Bank, Princeville collection © John
Davison
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"The
Lost Valley," acrylic on linen, 38" x 38", 1994,
private collection © John Davison
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"Into a
Dark Valley," acrylic on linen, 42" x 36", 1992,
private collection © John Davison
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All images © John
Davison 1977-1997
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