Dan's Cover Artist Shain Bard Discuss Natural Inspiration & 2024 Plans

On the cover of the January 26, 2024 edition of Dan’s Papers is “Sunset #3” by returning cover artist Shain Bard. Here, Bard discusses the inspiring quality of nature, the freedom that art provides and what’s on the agenda for 2024.

A Chat with Shain Bard

What inspired you to paint your “Sunset #3” artwork, and what is it about trees and nature that continues to inspire you?

While I am always inspired by nature — the trees, the ground, the snow and the sky — at the end of the day, which is the time I like best to paint, it is a certain quality of light and the way it spreads its subtle nuances around the scene (and eventually canvas) that sets off a spark of delight in me when I know I have to paint it.

In “Sunset #3” there was that glorious mystical white sun bursting through the trees, its rays brazenly asserting themselves even in front of the backlit trees in front of it, and occasionally reflecting off the pale blues of the snow. And the snow, I love to paint the snow, with its pale blues and yellows and gray-lavenders hitting the snow.

And then the trees, those majestic, stoic creatures that stay firmly in place while other earthly elements come and go around them; their branches, arms cradling the light and the snow. I like to paint landscapes I can walk into or live in, and “Sunset #3” is definitely a warm, cozy, welcoming place for me.

What do you enjoy most or find rewarding about being an artist?

Art and being an artist give me a way to address an overwhelming need that simply bubbles over in me to express my joy and passion for the beauty and abundance of life. It is the way I best relate to the world, where I can be my truest self in a place of freedom from whatever my personal circumstances in life might be, or (free from what) the outer world and society are telling us to be at any given time. They cannot tell us how to make our own art — at least not yet.

It is also my way of giving something back to the world, my gratitude for the brief time we have on this hurting but still incredible world, and my way of adding something to it. Art sustains me, and when I am in front of that blank canvas on my easel, I can create, painting by painting, one humble little corner of nature’s truths at a time. Art (as well as love) is the essence of the highest truths and joy of mankind (actually animals make art, too, but that’s another story). That’s pretty amazing, and something I never ever take for granted.

What is one goal that you’re working toward in 2024?

I found this fall to be so particularly beautiful and stunning, I went cruising around mostly the North Shore taking hundreds of photos all over the place, and I think I have at least a half dozen good paintings from those (the first one is in a show already at the Mills Pond House Gallery in St. James, and I’m working on the second one now), so I have enough paintings to paint happily away all winter, for a series I’ll call “Trees in Fall’s Euphoria Ball.”

However, now that we’ve gotten our first taste of a somewhat substantial amount of snow, I’m starting to itch to paint a snow landscape again, as that is my favorite thing in the world to paint. So we shall see, but whatever it is, I’ve got ’24 all booked up with fall or winter paintings!

Care to share any closing thoughts or additional info?

I’d like to take this venue to talk about a class that I’ll be teaching at the Art League of Long Island starting in February, titled “Art of the Forest: Painting Trees.” It’s still early in the year and what a perfect time in these winter months to try your hand at painting, or take it up again. And what better thing to paint than a tree? Students bring in their own pictures they take of trees and learn how to make a minimal grid to aid in creating their own special tree on canvas, and at the end have a show of all our various trees to make our own little magical forest.

All levels are welcome. Call the Art League at 631-462-5400 to register. If you have any questions, you can email me at shainbard@yahoo.com.

To see more of Shain Bard’s art, visit shainbard.com.