Kevin Davidson

To say that artist Kevin Davidson was born painting would not be far from the truth.  The artist’s earliest memory is of painting a tow truck.

“I was three years old and working with those 10-cent watercolor sets with the terrible brushes,” says the award-winning Old Towne artist.  “My mom said the painting was good, so I believed her.  In first grade, I drew better than everyone else in the class.  A classmate asked me if I was going to be an artist when I grew up, and I replied, ‘I guess I am.’ ”

With the encouragement and support of his parents, Davidson went from a budding artist to a more than 40-year career as an illustrator and more recently as an en plein air fine art painter.

“My mom and dad saw my talent and figured that I might as well make a career out of it, so they got me started on the commercial end with illustration,” says Davidson, whose great grandfather was a well-known sculptor in Chicago.  During high school, Davidson’s father helped him sign up for an illustration correspondence course aimed at commercializing talent.

After graduating from high school in 1965 and serving in the Navy as a draftsman until 1969, Davidson attended the Burnley School for Professional Art/The Art Institute of Seattle for a year and then the prestigious Art Center College of Design at the Los Angeles campus from 1971-1973.  He received a BFA in Illustration and went on to earn his living as a freelance illustrator.  Over the years, he worked with local ad agencies and designers, as well as national publishers on book covers.  In 1979, he moved from Stanton to Orange and has lived in Old Towne since with his wife, June, in a Victorian home with a carriage house that houses his studio.

In the last several years as commercial illustration became computerized, Davidson transitioned to fine art, concentrating on painting in watercolor and oil en plein air, a French term for painting outdoors.  In preparation for his transition, from 2001 to 2011 he took watercolor classes with Barbara Stutheit, a noted exhibitor at the Watercolor Gallery in Laguna Beach.

In Stutheit’s class, Davidson discovered yupo as a painting canvas.  The 100 percent polypropylene plastic material is an impenetrable surface that offers the artist the flexibility to paint on location and then make changes later.  “Working on yupo frees me up to do wilder things than I might otherwise,” he says.  “I don’t second guess each stroke, because I know it’s not permanent.”

When people see Davidson’s yupo paintings, they stop and instinctively know that something is different about them, says professional watercolorist Judy Schroeder, who owns Schroeder Studio Gallery in the Plaza, which displays Davidson’s work.  “The yupo paintings are more brilliant and fluid, because they are slick and the paint doesn’t sink in,” she says.  “Yupo is one of the most difficult surfaces to paint on, and Kevin has made it his signature.”

In addition to mastering a difficult medium, Davidson’s strengths lie in the fact that he is a superior illustrator, says Schroeder.  “Kevin is an extraordinary draftsman, which really enhances his work.  Being skillful at drawing is rare nowadays, yet drawing is the language of the artist.  Kevin can draw anything and he composes beautifully.  He also has an incredible work ethic.”

Davidson agrees that 40 years of illustrating positively influences his fine art.  “Knowing how to draw gives me a good foundational structure, and I’m able to do some creative things off that basic structure,” he says.  “My illustration ability allows me to make the paintings realistic and authentic, yet lively.”

Davidson’s mastery of drawing comes through clearly in the painting depicted in this issue.  The view of the San Juan Capistrano depot that he painted en plein air in 2011 is a watercolor depicting the dome of the depot tower and an edited version of its surroundings.

“If you’re able to draw, you know what to edit out, so you can make a scene look as it should,” says Davidson.  “The foundation is the drawing.  I draw a scene as is and then embellish it like I did in first grade—only much better.”

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Davidson will teach a yupo workshop on February 15 and 16, 2014 at the Schroeder Studio Gallery, 112 East Maple Ave in the Plaza, SchroederStudio.com.  Visit Davidson’s Tumblr page at Watercoloryupo.tumblr.com.