Don Ward was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1947. He
graduated with an Honors B.F.A. degree from the Art Center
College of Design, Los Angeles, California, in 1973. Until
1985, Don worked as a freelance illustrator and in the
field of Outdoor Pictorial Advertising. He then moved to
Taos, New Mexico, to pursue a career in fine art. Since
1987, he has been conducting the Taos Sketch Group, artists
that meet three times a week to draw and paint from live
models. In addition, he has been teaching oil painting
classes twice a week. He has been invited to participate in
the “Taos Impressionists” show and was
represented in the “Taos Invites Taos”
exhibitions from 1991 to current.
“My early influences were the Old Masters, such as
Velazque, Titian, and Tintoretto. Then, after I’d
painted a few years, the color and brushwork of the
Impressionists became important to my work.” Russian
painter Nicholai Fechin also heavily inspired Ward. In the
early 1970’s, a group formed in Taos that shared a
passion for painting plein-aire landscapes, thus becoming
known as the “Taos Six”. On the advice of
artist Ray Vinella, a member of the “Taos Six”,
Ward developed his painting and drawing skills at the Art
Center in Los Angeles under Lorser Feitelsen.
Don Ward is a quintessential Taos artist. His landscapes,
still life’s, and figure paintings render a dignity
of person, place and thing, recording a deep attachment to
life in the Southwest. His “living” color and
virtuosity in drafting link him to such Taos Master as
Walter Ufer, Kenneth Adams, and Victor Higgins.
“I like to think of my work not so much as pictures
of places or things, but records of having been there. And
I try to make my paintings give the viewer a sense of that
experience”.
