About Me

I started painting using watercolor and tempera as a child and still like watercolor for travel studies. I currently paint in oil and acrylic on site and in studio. My work often is about the places where man and the landscape coincide. Dwellings, structures and other man-made objects feature prominently. The structures I find most compelling and accessible are the gable ended variety here in the Pacific Northwest. A marine or foothills backdrop sets the stage. My palette is primarily the modern transparent colors produced by Gamblin which I like for their intensity.

Mitch Albala stated in his blog: "David Ridgway's 'Across Penn Cove' is much more a celebration of bold shapes, patterns and colors than it is a depiction of 'place'. Penn Cove and beyond is nothing more than a vehicle for the painter's personal aesthetic."

The painters whose work I enjoy are many. Here are a few: Winslow Homer, George Bellows, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse, Tom Thompson, Edward Hopper, Joan Mitchell, Richard Diebenkorn, Fairfield Porter, Wayne Thibaud, Lois Dodd, Neil Welliver, Helen Frankenthaler, Eric Fischl, Peter Doig and John Cole.