Through careful planning and diligent attention to detail, David Lanier’s paintings capture scenes of South Georgia sporting traditions, dogs, and landscapes. He is internationally recognized for his artwork. Lanier will discuss his process from concept to finished canvas at his Artist Talk on Thursday, Oct 3, at the Albany Museum of Art.

Lanier will speak at 5:30 pm in the Haley Galley, where his exhibition Beauty in the Humble Places is on view through Jan 4, 2025. The Artist Talk is free and open to the public, with free online registration at www.albanymuseum.com/event/david-lanier-artist-talk/. 

“It’s always a wonderful opportunity for audiences to hear directly from exhibiting artists on their artistic process,” AMA Director of Curatorial Affairs Katie Dillard said. “It’s during special talks like these in which artists are willing to share things you didn’t know about their work, or perhaps certain knowledge the exhibition missed. David has a lifetime of artwork on our gallery walls, and while I've had the privilege to hear a few of his stories already, I hope audiences will take advantage of the unique opportunity.”

Beauty in the Humble Places is the first retrospective of Lanier’s long career. The majority of the 140 works on display were loaned for the exhibition. Early works by Lanier from when he attended Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Fla., and his career as a commercial illustrator are included. Several of the paintings are shown next to studies Lanier created leading up to the final artworks.

“When we started putting the exhibit together, I told Katie and the museum staff I didn’t have a lot of paintings sitting around that I could offer,” Lanier said. “The paintings were scattered throughout the Southeast, so we made a long trip and rounded up some. Some I haven’t seen in over 30 years. It was overwhelming to see them all come back together for this exhibit. It represents so many years of my life, all in one room. It was special to be able to see it.”

The artist, who grew up in Albany, wanted to ensure the exhibition was educational about the creative process behind the finished works. He plans to expound on that in his Artist Talk.

“I really wanted to make it informative,” Lanier said. “By that, I mean I’d like to talk about the process by which I approach a painting, and what goes through my mind in the beginning stages. A lot of people, I think, have a misconception that as an artist I just sit down and create a pretty picture from my imagination or maybe a photograph. That’s far from the truth. It goes through a lot of planning. It’s like building a house. You need plans, there’s a lot of thought that goes into it.”

Lanier plans to present a slideshow of the stages he goes through when working on a painting. He will show 10-15 photographs of the studies that lead up to the final work. In the studies, for instance, he might work on composition by repositioning hunting dogs, adding more quail in flight, or removing a tree.

“You’ll see the decision process along the way,” he said.

Those attending also may be surprised at how the work on canvas evolves.

“I think there’s a misconception that the whole time you’re working on a painting, it looks like it’s supposed to look,” Lanier said. “That’s far from the truth. A painting goes through an ugly phase, and that’s where the stereotype of an artist comes from. People think artists are moody. There’s a lot of truth in that because 75% of the time when I’m working on a painting, the painting looks ugly. It doesn’t look like what it’s supposed to look like. It’s not until the final 25% of the time invested in the painting that the artwork starts looking like it’s supposed to. It looks like, ‘he doesn’t know what he’s doing,’ then it all comes together.”

While it has taken more than three decades for this retrospective to come together, Lanier’s career as a professional artist, in one respect, launched overnight, even though the seeds were sown when he was a sophomore in high school.

“When I was in high school, we saw a film of Andrew Wyeth’s work,” he said. “He was probably the best-known American artist in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. When I saw his work, it was basically landscapes and things around his house, his neighbors, and different scenes.

“That’s when I decided I wanted to be an artist, but I didn’t know much at all about the art field. I thought you had to be a commercial artist to make a living at it. I studied book illustrations and did that for five or six years after college, and then after I started getting the feel of how to paint, I thought, ‘What do I want to say to the world with my artwork?’”

As a commercial artist, Lanier did illustrations for magazines, book publishers, and advertisements. With the support of his wife, Cathy Lynn, Lanier made a career-changing decision.

“I don’t know if I was naïve about it, overconfident or what,” he said. “I called all my publishing clients one day—it was a Tuesday—and I told them, ‘Don’t send me any more work. I quit.’ I literally quit one day and started painting wildlife art the next day.”

Lanier said he feels fortunate that he has been able to make a living doing what he loves. His paintings, which are almost all commissions these days, reflect his deep love for nature that was instilled in him as a youth who enjoyed hunting, fishing, and the outdoors.

“I was a Boy Scout, and I spent a lot of time outdoors with my parents canoeing the Flint River and so forth,” he said. “That’s what appealed to me. I just find a lot of peace and calm being out in nature. I just wanted to bring the outdoors inside, show people what I thought was beautiful about our area.”

Learn more about the exhibition at the AMA website: www.albanymuseum.com/exhibition/beauty-in-the-humble-places/.

Learn more about David Lanier at his website: dlanier.com.

Beauty in the Humble Places, a David Lanier Retrospective, is on view through Jan 4, 2025, in the Haley Gallery of the Albany Museum of Art, 311 Meadowlark Drive. The museum is open to the public 10 am-5 pm Tuesdays-Saturdays, and admission is free for everyone.