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AFC Flag Expedition #12:
Immersed in the Habitat of the Great White Shark
Expedition Artist: David C. Gallup
Purpose: To study through sketching, notes, photography and collaboration with local scientific experts to bring attention to the plight of our oceans and in particular the Great White Shark.
Location: Channel Islands off the California Coast
Scheduled For: September to November, 2010
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David Gallup is an explorer. Not just of nature but of the introspective and spiritual connection man has with his environment. His life's passion has become a quest for new interpretations of the natural world without leaving his roots in Plein-Air Observation-Based painting. Working in the style of the impressionist masters, David's works are created on location in some of the world's most beautiful and fascinating places. They often depict moments when natural elements obscure solid forms, such as fog, rain, glare, or darkness. These elements are used in Gallup's work to visually represent the sense of awe and mystery he feels for the natural world.

Having trained to be an artist since early childhood, he has diligently pursued his craft ever since. As a young man he worked as a writer, illustrator, and art director for a Los Angeles news paper to pay his way through school. In 1990 he graduated from the Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design. He immediately began teaching art, and spent four years as an art instructor for Mission: Renaissance, a private art school which stresses having a strong classical background in line, tone and color as well as a solid knowledge of art history. His formal training and these classical influences are still very evident in Gallup's work today. In 1992 Gallup met japanese artist Hiro Yamagata and soon became the lead staff artist on the “Earthly Paradise” collection. It was during the early years of this relationship that Gallup began to develop his use of color harmony, rather than contrast, which marks his work today. Gallup's innovative use of basic music theory to find harmony in color is soothing and subtle, and it's benefits are visible even to the untrained eye.

For the past five years he has been painting for his fist major solo museum tour. California's Channel Islands will be the subject of his work, which is sponsored by the National Park Service, The Nature Conservancy, Sony, The Bill & Marilyn Field Trust and a collaboration of prominent American Museums. The show is being slated to travel coast to coast in premium museum venues, along with a HD documentary film about him doing these paintings (intended for limited local releases and international satellite TV). A quality hardcover catalog of the work is also being produced to accompany the exhibition.

Gallup's love for painting en plein-air has led him to explore the styles of French and California Impressionism over the years, drawing inspiration from both. He has a passion for capturing fleetingly beautiful moments in nature in a mixture of luminous color and dynamic brushwork that are uniquely his own. David's paintings depict the ethereal nature of our world and are influenced by such artists as Claude Monet, John Twachtman, J. A. M. Whistler, Hiroshi Yoshida, and Emil Carlson. His work has won numerous local and international awards, and can be seen today in museum exhibitions and collections nationwide. 

In 2004 David founded Landscape United Nature Artists (LUNA) . LUNA is a group of eight nationally recognized plein-air artists who are working together to document ecologically significant areas of the world to inspire conservation. Works will be shown in museum and educational venues internationally.

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