Location: United States
David Bratzel was born in Maryland, but grew up in Iowa. He has had a life long involvement with the arts, winning many student competitions and awards in elementary and secondary school. His High School and Junior High art teacher was Ray Frederick, a noted Iowa artist who was a student of Grant Wood at the Stone City workshop. He considers the time he studied with Ray and their friendship one of the biggest influences on his art. He studied at Marshalltown Community College, and the University of Iowa in Iowa City. He singled out the teachers, Joe Patrick and Stuart Edie as having a particular importance to him in his training. He also studied with Virginia Meyer, S. Carl Fracassini and James Lechay.
His work has been displayed in many competitive shows: the Iowa Arts Salon, Iowa Artist's Show, North East Iowa Artists Show in Cedar Falls(Best in Show 1979), MacNider Museum Annual, Mason City, Iowa, Minnesota Water Color Show, Lake Country Pastel Society Show, Arts in Harmony National Show in Elk River, MN, the Northern Lights Juried Show at Mesabi East Gallery, Savage Art Gallery Juried Show, “Art on the Edge: Seventh Annual Juried Show at Edge Gallery in Bigfork, MN and the 14th Annual International Acrylic Painters Show in Santa Crux, CA. His prints were included in a show of American Printmakers in Scandinavia in the 70's. His work has also been selected for purchase in the arts in the Architecture program and are on display in State Buildings in Iowa. He was active in the "Artist's in the Schools" program sponsored by the Iowa Arts Council until 1981 when he left Iowa. Mr. Bratzel worked for the Arts Council for two years in the 70's doing Arts Programs for special populations. His pastel portraits of residences of Care Facilities, done during this period, became a traveling show sponsored by the Iowa Arts Council through out the state.
His work has been displayed in the Iowa Capital Rotunda, and in innumerable cultural centers throughout Iowa. His One Man shows include Luther College, Marshalltown Community College, Fisher Community Center in Marshalltown, Ray Frederick Gallery, McGregor Gallery, McGregor Iowa, the Iowa State Fair where he was also Artist in Residence in 1980, the Blaine, MN City Hall, Robbins Gallery in Robbinsdale, MN, and A Piece of Work Gallery in Spirit Lake, Ia. He is a signature member of the International Society of Acrylic Painters. His work is represented in Xanadu Galleries in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Acrylic painting is one of my main media, and represents some of the main concepts of my Art. I am always working to establish a balance between the serendipity of the medium, loose gestural painting, and faithfulness to convey the natural image that inspired the work.
The Big Fork River winds through the woods of Northern Minnesota. This painting on canvas is from a walk I took just outside the town of Big Fork where the small river winds it way out of town and into the wooded hills that surround it here. I was struck by the quiet stream, the colors in the reflections and the light streaming from around the bend. It seems to promise something that is just around the corner.
I fell in love with Pastels forty years ago when I used them primarily to do outdoor studies for my acrylic paintings. The acrylics were done in my studio and I didn't take them outside to work. But, I loved working in pastel. Since then, I have taken up the pastels for their own sake. My current technique involves water color under paintings which often become part of the finished work and add an often unexpected turn to the work. That makes the resulting image kind of a hybrid, the mixture of the experience of seeing with the experience of painting.
This pastel on Wallis paper was done with a watercolor under painting. It portrays Mower county, in the south east corner of Minnesota, an area that is part of the great plains.
“HayCreekBottoms”
“Big Fork Bend”
“Barb Wire Survivor”
“Ready for the Plow”
