Menemsha Gulls, Woodcut by David Witbeck

"Menemsha Gulls", a woodcut by David Witbeck; framed 

During the first 18 years of David Witbeck’s life, he had little exposure to the sea and salt water vistas, but he states “I always drew pictures of fishing boats, lighthouses, and stormy seascapes, and read every sea story in the school library.” In 1980 he moved to Rhode Island to be near salt water and to finish his college education at Rhode Island School of Design, becoming a free-lance photographer for the next three decades. David returned to painting discovering the joy and freedom from reality that painting gave him, over the limits of his camera. David paints how things make him feel instead of simply what they look like. He is pleased when his paintings evoke smiles. Witbeck states, “humor is an element too often missing in art. Having come back to painting relatively late in life I now understand that Art need not be earth-shakingly profound.”