Today we’d like to introduce you to David William Terry.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Painting portraits has been my dream for almost 40 years. I would see them in museums and long to be able to do them. They seemed for me to be the most magical art; with the simplest of tools, an artist could bring a canvas to life so fully that 500 years later we can look at it and feel we know the person in the painting.
In 2003 I quit my job as a trial lawyer and left my partnership in the law firm my father started in 1961. Thanks to a willing wife, patient children, and the tutelage of a master portrait artist, we survived the initial shock, and since then I have worked as a fine art portrait artist.
After a few years of painting at home, in 2007 I decided I needed more space, While visiting one of the annual Cedars Studio Tours, I found a vacant spot in the old Newland Hotel, a former Piggly Wiggly, on South Akard. It worked perfectly as a studio. Well, perfectly until I decided it would also work as a gallery.
The Cedars Art Gallery opened in April of 2007. The shows were great fun, and we generally drew upwards of 200-300 people. We drank wine, ate cheese, talked art and hobnobbed. But I didn’t get much painting done. Some weeks the only painting I did was while I taught art classes at the gallery, or at the two weekly life drawing sessions the gallery hosts.
Eventually, I realized that I needed a more serene place to work. The search for one of those led to many great adventures too numerous to describe. Through it all, I have remained a co-owner of the Cedars Art Gallery, which continues to be my home base, and it still hosts life drawing sessions and provides a workspace for a gifted photographer of fine art. My other studio is currently in Jacksonville, Oregon, where I help care for my mother.
Has it been a smooth road?
During one of those aforementioned adventures, Francesca and I decided we would explore the shortcut between two villages on the west coast of Costa Rica. Locals said we could ride our bikes over a dirt road in about an hour and a half, rather than spend 5 hours riding on busses.
We rented bicycles, strapped our suitcases to them and headed out. The hills got steeper and steeper. Soon we were walking the bikes up the hills and riding down the other side. Then we realized the hills were so steep, the brakes wouldn’t work. After nearly breaking our necks, we began walking the bikes. Then, if that weren’t enough, the hills got so steep we had to work together to walk one bike up a hill, then go back and get the other bike. All the while it was 100 degrees and dry as a bone.
Eventually, seven hours later, we made it to the little village. We called the guy that rented us the bikes and told him he’d have to come get them, at which he laughed heartily — he knew what we were in for when we rented them, and just didn’t say anything!
We found a beautiful place to stay, with a pool and an honor fridge stocked with cold beer.
My journey as a professional portrait artist has mirrored this little adventure. I have yet to find the honor fridge with the cold beer, but the rest of it fits like a glove! And, as I now thank the guy that rented us the bikes for not telling us what we would be up against, I thank all the artists and other entrepreneurs who held their tongues and quietly snickered to themselves when I told them I was going to be a portrait artist.
My commissions always take precedence, regardless of where we happen to be. Every new place we went, I would scramble to put together a functioning studio so I could continue working. Sometimes this meant making stretchers out of fence posts, and canvas from bolts of fabric at the dress shop. I’ve stashed easels on three continents.
Historically, the lives of portrait artists have little in common. Some maintained a quiet studio in a small corner of a big city for decades. Others travelled around living very nomadic lives painting the people they encountered. Over the past ten years, mine has been most like the latter group. Little has been as I planned, much has been as I would never have imagined.
When we decided to take my mother in with us a few years ago, the nomadic life had to cease. I now have perhaps the best studio I’ve gotten to work in, and access to the finest materials. We live in a quiet, small town, but there’s an airport and an interstate fifteen minutes away. I miss Dallas, but I get back as often as possible.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Painting portraits excites me. Whether it’s the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or someone’s grandchild, I love getting to know the person I’m painting and the process of capturing them on canvas.
I also love the materials, the oils, the pigments, the linens. For me, part of the great magic comes from taking these simple things and turning them into heirlooms that will last centuries. I am passionate about learning how the various ingredients work and how to best insure the painting lasts for many generations.
Some of the “big deals” for me have included honors from the Portrait Society of America, being accepted into the Schaefer Portrait Challenge in Hawaii, being included in “The Portrait Project,” in which the finest living portrait artists are invited to paint the publisher of “Fine Art Connoisseur” magazine, as well as invitations to participate in numerous juried shows, including those hosted by the Oil Painters of America and the Salmagundi Club of New York.
Perhaps my greatest honor has been the response from clients who tell me I have absolutely captured their loved one. Recently, I painted a commissioned portrait of the three generations of men who had been at the helm of a family business. The elder of them, the grandfather, had died before I was brought in, and I had to work from photos and a model. I felt as proud as I could when I learned that his widow walked up and touched the painting at the unveiling. These stories fuel my fire and make me want to continue overcoming whatever obstacles come along. I suppose these are the “honor fridge” at the end of the road.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Dallas nurtures artists and entrepreneurs. This city has a reputation of being cold and pretentious, and there is truth in that. But Dallas has another, quite generous side.
Many great artists and businesses got their start in Dallas. From Neiman Marcus and Texas Instruments to Dale Chihuly, and Steve Miller, Dallas served as an incubator for greatness. I can see why my father came to Dallas to start his law firm in 1961, straight out of law school. Dallas is a place where you are able to start out without the network of connections necessary in so many communities. Dallas has its enclaves of inherited power, but many, many people have proved these old school networks are not required in order to build a good business. Over and over again, in my travels I see the work of artists and businesses that started out in Dallas.
For me, both in the legal community and in the arts, Dallas seems to hold itself open to fresh ideas. The playing field remains as open as any I’ve encountered. This doesn’t mean there aren’t real barriers for some, but those barriers are far easier to overcome in Dallas than they can be in other cities I’ve lived in.
Dallas’ richness comes from its diversity and its willingness to say “Yes!” to such a wide variety of people and ideas. I hope Dallas continues to embrace this openness and spirit of hope, and realize that it is these qualities that make it a great city.
Pricing:
- Commissioned Portraits start at $6,500 and are priced by size and the number of subjects.
Contact Info:
- Address: Cedars Art Gallery
1114 S. Akard St,
Dallas, Texas - Website: www.davidterryfineart.com
- Phone: 214.676.8840
- Email: david@davidwilliamterry.com
- Instagram: davidwilliamterry
- Facebook: DavidTerryArtist@FineArtPortraits
- Twitter: @DavidTerryArt
- Other: www.davidwilliamterry.com
Image Credit:
David William Terry Fine Art Portraits
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