Okanagan artist is hot
A painting depicting the vineyard lifestyle has been picked up by a major arts licensing agency in the United States.
Okanagan artist David Maclean created “Okanagan Vineyard Retreat” at his Kelowna studio.
Maclean was a traditional brush and canvas artist for 25 years before switching to digital art in 2003, after taking a college course to operate a large format printer.
“I realized all the things I could do with a brush and canvas I could also do on a computer, using the same stroke techniques but with a much larger palette,” said Maclean. “It also allows for more layering, which was always something I used when I was using traditional methods.”
“David has become one of our top-selling, most requested artists. We have seen the demand for his work increase dramatically over the past year” said Raul Turpin with MGL licensing in London. “My job is to find clients for our artists we represent, but over the past six months David’s art is snapped up within a day or even hours sometimes.
“I sent Okanagan Vineyard Retreat to my agency in London on a Monday morning and it was sold (licensed) by end of that day to one of the largest American licensing companies in the world out of Newton Massachusetts,” said Maclean. “These types of things often take weeks and months to licence.”
With the demand for his work growing so quickly Maclean is now painting seven days a week often starting at 5 in the morning.
“Sometimes I get lost in it and realize several hours have passed when my wife checking in on me,” said Maclean.