Using large (& small) trowels, Van Pelt applies heavy layers of paint on masonite and plywood where images are important with concern for abstraction and simplification. Van Pelt focuses on the singleness of objects where a chair becomes a portrait. The bold gestural spontaneity of his art emerges as a personal and distinctive style invoking a sense of delight, freshness and discovery.
Having an interest and talent for art from a young age, Van Pelt graduated with 90 additional hours of Fine Arts while earning his Bachelor of Interior Architecture. As a benefit for teaching at University of California Berkeley, San Francisco extension, he was fortunate to study with Fred Reichman (1925-2005), enrolling in his 'Individual Exploration in Drawing and Painting' for 7 years, culminating in a two-person show at the extension Gallery, as well
as inclusion in an Interior Architecture/ Interior Design Faculty Art Show.
NOTE: Desert series are studies done 'Plein Air' on 16in x 20in canvas board.
"The cumulative effect of my three dimensional design experience coupled with teaching perspective drawing, design history and theory, and having showrooms full of 'chairs', has found a direct release in painting. I wish to put the viewer in direct contact with my motivation for recording an experience."
