Dan Ahern

Type of Work: Oil, Oil and cold wax medium, Oil pastel

Contact Information

Email: Dan.Ahern1960@gmail.com

Biography

I've been in sales, sales management, human development, branding and strategy for more than 40 years. The most creative role I had in that period was as a custom tailor of fine men's apparel. The stimulation from fine fabrics, design, fit and accessorizing brought great joy on a daily basis.

By happenstance more than 25 years ago I came across my 6-year-old daughter’s art supplies on the kitchen table: four small tempera paint containers, a beginner’s brush and a roll of craft paper. Three hours later, having no idea what I was doing, I had completed a respectable rendering of a famous Paul Klee image, from his Blue Riders period. I can’t tell you how it happened. It was spontaneous. I keep that painting as a reminder of “what can be” when one lets themself explore.

Since that night I’ve been inspired to create oil paintings on canvas and canvas paper, oil pastels on paper, and many-layered oil and cold wax medium paintings on gesso board, having been inspired by Ginnie Caeppert, one of America’s best in that genre.

For me, painting is an emotional event, often separated by long periods of creating little. I get inspired by places more than anything else, none more than in New Mexico given its incredible light, lavender skies and historic structures. I lean toward loose, representational and textural painting with brushes, palette knives, sponges and various scrapers for which cold wax lends itself nicely.