Don Trout  Artist, Teacher, Demonstrator

A LIFE-LONG LOVE AFFAIR WITH ART

During my preschool years I found a pencil and I started drawing. This was the
beginning of a life-long love affair with art. In grade school my notebook of drawings
outweighed my notebook of school work. The drawings were not masterpieces, just
tanks, planes and soldiers, battle scenes and other typical subjects of a young boy's
musings.

As I entered my teens,  my mother gave me a set of watercolors. I was noticing other
things now, like the beauty of young girls, and the natural world around me. I morphed
into a painter. I soon had a watercolor entered in a school competition and won a
Saturday Scholarship to the Art Institute. As a typical youngster, drawing from plaster
casts didn't hold my attention; so the Art Institute effort didn't last long.

I continued to paint, however, and on entering the university decided on a fine art major.
Now disciplined art study was no longer a chore. In fact, I relished the classes. It was
here I discovered the love of oil paint and the feel of canvas under the brush. I enjoyed
the camaraderie of the small group of art majors. The curriculum, touching on every
medium, studying the old masters, and visits to the local art museum, brought the entire
world of art to life for me.

To this day I still feel a thrill laying a watercolor wash and seeing the affect of
transparent pigment on fine white watercolor paper; and the same satisfaction from
picking up a brush loaded with oil paint and caressing the surface of a canvas. Whether
my compositions are planned and followed through to completion or spontaneous and
started with random patterns and shapes until the surface textures tell me what is
needed to make a painting, I derive the same satisfaction.

My life wouldn't be complete if I didn't paint. I am still having a love affair with art
The Artist
A detail from a
Southwest style  
painting
Welcome to my website
The guitarist is Darryl Denning playing:
Study in E Minor by Francisco Tarrega, a selection
from Darryl's CD: Classical Guitar Artistry.
Counter
LATEST WORK
The chicken photos had been hiding in my files for years.
Refiling photos, I saw them again and once into the subject, I couldn't help
but enjoy the shapes and colors. These are out of my sketchbook.
Watercolor Sketch 15" x 22"
Trying to find a good composition.
A Mixed Media Study 16" x 22
Expanded on the color and texture
shapes a bit.
A small color rough version of a dyptich
Two canvases, 14" x 18" are the support for this mixed media original.
I used collaged rice papers, acrylic paint, and pearlescent glaze. My goal
was to make a strong graphic statement using arbitrary colors and the textures
of the papers and less of a representational painting.