Dave Wade has loved art from a young age. With wildlife and nature being his first love, it is not a surprise that this became the focus his art. He attended the University of Utah and Art Center College of Design, but also recognizes the influence of artists like Bob Kuhn, Carl Rungius, Ken Carlson and Richard Schmidt have had upon his career.
Dave and his wife enjoy being outdoors, watching and photographing animals in their natural habitat. He spends a great deal of time researching the individual behavior and characteristics of the various animals he observes. As a result of this dedication of time and patience, an important aspect of his paintings is capturing the expressions of the wildlife he observes, and the use of sunlight to depict these animals. He has developed a wonderful ability to capture his observations in nature with great attention to detail and his trademark use of light, but in a soft painterly style.
Dave began selling his paintings in 1976, but the longer he paints, the more he learns about the animals he portrays. His style has changed somewhat since those early works, and he leans more towards a looser, impressionistic style in his recent works; although he admits that different subjects often evoke different styles.
Dave has been the recipient of numerous awards, including five first place awards for the Wyoming Conservation Stamp/Print. He placed in the top 100 in the Arts for the Parks 1998 and 1999 competition, winning the Sam Houston Migratory Bird Award in 1998. Dave’s work has been included in the invitational miniature show at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming for many years, and his illustrations have been published in many books and magazines across the country.
Dave moved from the city to the country in 1998 because of his deep-rooted love of the west and the wildlife still so abundant there. He states, “the joy of my life is living and enjoying every day with my wife and daughter. I am so fortunate to be an artist and to have had a full time art career for the past 25 years.” In his efforts to “give something back”, he has been a faithful supporter of many conservation groups, including the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, Ducks Unlimited, and many more.
