Sometimes when you look at a lot of artists' work, you realise you are left with an impression of only one. That is what happened when I saw the work of Caleb Davis. What I admire the most in an artist is the boldness and confidence of their style.
While I was gazing at Caleb's work, I felt his need of creation, the boiling desire of mixing lines and colours, the fluidity in finding balance, the sense of harmony.
His work is expressionist, a good mixture of transparency and opacity. He plays with juicy paint and blurry effects, dripping and brushing colours. The obvious brush strokes are drawing patterns, the whole work tends to be abstract expressionist but not exclusively.
Sometimes, when I view his paintings, I see the dynamism of Willem de Kooning, the poetry of Paul Klee. A feel for Asger Jorn, tormented, agitated movements, as if you are enjoying the scent of a perfume and slowly, the fragrance infuses you. But no matter what, when I look at the new works in Artfinder, I recognise Caleb's paintings, and that, I think is important in a world where everything is standardised, stereotyped, Caleb has developed his own style, he has a signature.
Lined and structured, wild and bold, colourful and full of motion, always well composed, the artist is so daring in his technique. The geometrical universe meets wonderfully with the organic world. There is softness and an energy emerging from each of his paintings.
I can easily imagine a much bigger size of canvas where his universe could unfold freely, it would fit so well. Freedom is what comes to my mind looking at the way he uses the colour, how he gives life to the surface with his vigorous, scraping, brushing, and fading.
I am a nature lover, a lot into landscapes, but also an abstract lover, and it's been tough to choose only one painter in the Artfinder selection of artists. I have picked Caleb, because there is something humble in his work which touches me, something genuine, and as I said above, I feel a lot of freedom in his way of creating, something which was born from his gut, and it pleases the eye, it pleases mine and it creates a world of emotions, a world of reminiscences when I look at his paintings. There's a real enjoyment in seeing how easily the hues are matched; how the muted tones are used, and how sometimes the little touch of bright paint creates a focus point, a light, it's like finding a gem amongst the stones, it's like finding Caleb Davis amongst the crowd.
This blog was written by Celine Baliguian.
