Grand Prize

William F. Draper Grand Prize Winner

Sponsored by: Jack Richeson & Co, American Art Collector and Portrait Society of America

Daniel Keys Fresno, CA, USA Innocence, oil on linen, 40 x 45" (102 x 114 cm)

Inspiration: This painting features Daniel’s artist friend Adam Longatti’s two children. The two often paint together, and when Daniel wanted to depict children within a larger composition, Adam volunteered his own. They could not have been better suited for the piece—they were exceptionally well behaved and even seemed to enjoy the process of posing for the study that would later become Innocence.

Artistic Path: When Daniel entered his teens, he decided that he wanted to be a full-time artist. He credits his parents for being encouraging from the start and says that he owes them everything. He learned the fundamentals of painting by reading Richard Schmid’s book Alla Prima. Some years later, he met Schmid after he had developed his own voice as a painter and was beginning to make his mark in the art world. Schmid invited Daniel to paint in his studio in New England, and they began a close friendship that remains to this day.