David Estey
David is an award-winning, improvisational painter in Belfast, Maine. He was born in 1942 at Fort Fairfield, in Northern Maine, into a family of laborers and storytellers. He grew up surrounded by nature. With no art in school, he taught himself to draw and paint, depicting hundreds of animals and people he imagined or found in books, magazines, and movies.
He excelled in school and completed a BFA degree in painting from Rhode Island School of Design, a year of study in Rome, and a month of hitchhiking around Europe. He was drafted into the army and spent four years as an illustrator at Ft. Meade, MD. He earned a master’s degree from George Washington University and had a federal career in public affairs. He also practiced, studied, and taught art, including 14 years of figure studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and workshops with prominent artists in three states. He explored many major museums in Europe and the U.S. He married a woman from Vienna, Austria, and raised a son and daughter, then divorced and married a childhood classmate.
In 1995 he retired from government and began to exhibit successfully in PA, NC, and Maine. He has been in 23 solo shows and over 90 group and juried exhibits. His work is in private and organizational collections in 20 states and seven countries. He has produced over 10,800 pieces of art.
His Maine roots and extensive study and experience beyond have earned the hard-won gravitas reflected in his work.
“Over the past 70 years, I have worked in many different styles, from realism to abstract expressionism. Now my painting is almost totally improvisational. I start out with nothing in mind other than to shape the elements and principles of design into a new and exciting result. Sometimes, it is strictly nonrepresentational. More often it becomes oddly narrative, which I may or may not understand. That’s okay with me. I want to be as surprised and intrigued as anyone else by what I make.”