Dan Knepper: welcome to the hikers, explorers and the curious who can’t help but wander off the beaten path. My body of work captures the color of crisp morning light filled with promise, or the softening light of evening’s approach, or the last light of the gloaming where colors and sensibility of the day shift almost imperceptibly. .. all the transitions of life. We can control none of it, but in my work, I am able to stop a moment in time, hold a note, a breath, a transcendence above the ordinary held in the light through the leaves or its dance on the water.
My work resonates with those that love life’s natural beauty, who are drawn to green spaces, those concerned about the environment and what we leave behind for their families and those who follow. … for the hikers who are drawn to wander off the path to the wild places beyond.
I went to college to study glassblowing, which had a profound effect on my painting. Hot glass has a light of its own. It glows from within, and passes through dramatic changes of transparent color as it cools. I view the world through that lens of transparent colors and sparkling chips of colored glass, and try to reflect that in my work.
Trips to Glacier and Western Montana as well as the Tetons and Yellowstone made a transcendent change in my life and work. The experience helped define my work in general. I realized I wanted to bottle awe, and instill tranquility through quiet timeless moments.
I have studied painting with Mary Whyte, Peter Fiore, Neal Hughes, Scott Lloyd Anderson, Antonio Masi, Ryan Brown, and many others but Steven Walker has been the greatest influence on my oils.