Douglas Witmer

When I draw or work on paper the process is uniquely its own. And it doesn’t necessarily yield images that fit neatly with the paintings I’ve been steadily exhibiting over the years.

A year ago, I published the pages of a sketchbook on my weblog. Opening that book to the public was a personally challenging experiment and it ended up being energizing and worthwhile. It lead me to open up my flatfile and sift through visual activity from the past decade. What I found…what I always find…were interesting and compelling things that no one else ever saw.

During December 2009 I made selections from the flatfile available at extremely affordable prices, and your responses were enthusiastic.

Now I’ve built an Etsy store around the concept of my flatfile project. And it’s open for your perusal. You’ll find a variety of images at prices starting at $25. I’m adding work each week. Some work from the past and some from the present. Custom matting and framing is available as well.

Please visit:
http://flatfile.etsy.com/

Follow updates to the shop on Facebook and Twitter

Flatfile on Etsy Facebook page

Twitter feed: @_FLATFILE_

Since 2004 I have been making mixed media works on found school-grade tablet paper. The School Papers now comprise nearly 70 works. Each day through September I will post a few. A selection of School Papers are scheduled to be included in a group exhibition this coming December at the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art.

Since 2004 I have been making mixed media works on found school-grade tablet paper. The School Papers now comprise nearly 70 works. Each day through September I will post a few. A selection of School Papers are scheduled to be included in a group exhibition this coming December at the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art.

Since 2004 I have been making mixed media works on found school-grade tablet paper. The School Papers now comprise nearly 70 works. Each day through September I will post a few. A selection of School Papers are scheduled to be included in a group exhibition this coming December at the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art.

Since 2004 I have been making mixed media works on found school-grade tablet paper. The School Papers now comprise nearly 70 works. Each day through September I will post a few. A selection of School Papers are scheduled to be included in a group exhibition this coming December at the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art.

Since 2004 I have been making mixed media works on found school-grade tablet paper. The School Papers now comprise nearly 70 works. Each day through September I will post a few. A selection of School Papers are scheduled to be included in a group exhibition this coming December at the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art.

Since 2004 I have been making mixed media works on found school-grade tablet paper. The School Papers now comprise nearly 70 works. Each day through September I will post a few. A selection of School Papers are scheduled to be included in a group exhibition this coming December at the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art.

Since 2004 I have been making mixed media works on found school-grade tablet paper. The School Papers now comprise nearly 70 works. Each day through September I will post a few. A selection of School Papers are scheduled to be included in a group exhibition this coming December at the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art.

Fruitville at Some Walls, Oakland CA

I’m very pleased to announce the opening of “Fruitville,” at Chris Ashley’s project Some Walls in Oakland, CA. This is a project that has been a long time in the making, and presents a virtually unknown body of work from the past 10 years. The exhibition is fully documented online and includes an excellent essay by Chris Ashley. Some Walls is also open by appointment if you are in California. In addition to the exhibition, I have updated the gallery of Fruitville works on my website with a dozen images. Press release follows:

Some Walls presents Philadelphia-based artist Douglas Witmer’s exhibition Fruitville from June 20 – July 25, 2010 . Douglas Witmer is well known for his paintings which intuitively combine simple geometric imagery, emphatic color, and subtle manipulation of surface physicality. In addition to this widely-shown and growing body of work, for the past several years Witmer has worked on a series small three dimensional pieces using found wood as a support called Fruitville. This exhbition is the first time the Fruitville works have been shown publicly. Witmer has said about this series:

The Fruitville Pike is a road where I grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It’s a major thoroughfare, but it doesn’t go to, from, or through anywhere called Fruitville. My efforts to find Fruitville, if there ever was such a place at all, have been inconclusive.

So Fruitville exists in my imagination as a kind of Eden; a place of purity, clarity, and quiet delight. It manifests itself in an ongoing visual process of experimentation with wood, paint, glue, paper, ink, light, and shadows. The things that make up my Fruitville exist to be in relationship to the places where they can be seen, and also in relationship with each other.

The sensitive, direct, and quirky color, spatial, and textural qualities that appear in Witmer’s paintings and works on paper are also found in the Fruitville series, continuing his approach to making art that is lush, playful, and deceptively simple, yet rigorous, iconic, and commanding. Ten additional Fruitvilles works and five paintings- four on canvas, one on paper- are also available for viewing.

Some Walls is a curatorial and writing art project in a private home in Oakland, California. Some Walls is open by appointment only. To view the exhibition online please visit somewalls.com. To schedule a visit, or for more information, please contact Chris Ashley at info@somewalls.com.

First Light available as a free download

I make music under the name The Consolidated Hand Mouth & Ear Institute. My album of solo ambient guitar pieces is now available as a free download at bandcamp.com. Originally released at the end of 2007, it’s my gift to you. Enjoy!

Bridgette Mayer Gallery’s “Ready, Willing, and Able” benefit exhibition continues through July 2, 2010. Ready, Willing, and Able Philadelphia is an organization with a mission of ending homelessness, substance abuse and criminal recidivism by providing transitional work, supportive services and clean, safe housing to homeless and formerly incarcerated individuals in Philadelphia. This is the second year Bridgette invited me to participate, and the second time she has sold my piece before the opening. She invited me to make more work for the show, which I gladly did. So here’s a chance at two brand new works and the opportunity to support a great cause. The works I have created for these benefit exhibitions are quite unique in relation to my larger body of work. I do work in small formats, but these are quite a bit smaller than what I typically make. Also, except for the works for these benefit shows, I have not made square paintings in more than a decade. In fact as you see below, my first piece in this year’s show was actually two joined squares.

It Is Happening Again, black gesso and acrylic on canvas, two joined panels, 10 x 20 inches overall. SOLD.

What If We Give It Away?, black gesso and acrylic on canvas, 10 inches square. Now available.

Rise, black gesso and acrylic on canvas, 10 inches square. Now available.

Full press release here.
View all the work in the show here.