Craig McDaniel’s paintings thread a delicate needle, a needle that is then used to stitch together a trio of art -isms: realism, surrealism and magical realism. As those three movements come together, McDaniel’s focus narrows into the magic of everyday life.
“I fall into those everyday realms quite naturally. There is a resonance there for me,” he says, adding that he keys into magical properties that swirl around everyone. “The magical realism is there, but I don’t paint that heightened sense of realism, or that surreal side of the equation. I paint a vision that is a little bit unreal, but it is an everyday reality. It’s a moment in life, one that can look at the beauty, joy and, yes, magic, that is all around us.”
Driving on the Shoulder, oil on canvas, 42 x 42"
McDaniel’s newest works will be part of a solo show opening November 1 at RJD Gallery in Romeo, Michigan. The show is titled Enchantment: The Magical Worlds of Craig McDaniel and it will feature as many as nine new pieces.
The artist presently lives in Indianapolis, but says he’s called dozens of places home—California, Texas, Rhode Island, Maryland, Italy—since his dad was in the U.S. Navy. When he started to get into art, his interests were like his homes, they bounced around in new directions, some far away from the previous one. “My works have been built out of the later modernists: Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, Mary Cassatt, Max Beckman,” he says. When told his landscapes have a Charles Burchfield feel to them, McDaniel agrees. “I hadn’t considered that, but I can see it. I also love looking at the work of Francis Bacon, but my work looks nothing like his at all. I’m a nerd for painting and I love looking at other artists’ works and seeing how they develop their forms and compositions.”
Longing, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30"
McDaniel adds that what excites him about those artists, is what drives him forward in his own work. “I love the everyday magic that can exist. That is what I want to emphasize. I’m not creating a window into another reality,” he says, “but I am making a painting that allows me to key into colors, shapes and compositions that allow me to explore my perspective on the world.”
Spring Blossoms, acrylic on canvas, 50 x 50"
His paintings, while representative of figures and places, veer delicately into more fantastical realms. They aren’t fantasy, but there are elements of his imagination tucked into the folds of his paint. Consider a work like Driving on the Shoulder, which shows two women seated in car. Between them on the seat is a small figure shooting an arrow from a bow. The tiny archery scene is almost hidden in the paint, but once it’s seen it’s hard to unsee. In Spring Blossoms, other surreal details seep into the landscape: a woman’s sleeping in a bed outside, a figure looking through a window, a moon aglow behind the window inside a house and the dramatic depiction of the landscape.
Winter Camping, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30"
“For Spring Blossoms, I started that at the height of the pandemic when we were in lockdown. I was sort of thinking unusual dreams, where outside and inside where mushed together. I love the notion of the figure sleeping outdoors,” he says, adding that the painting started after a road trip to West Virginia. “The colors were different and some of the imagery was different, but the shape of the road was there and there was a wonderful spring quality in the trees. The trees were also inspired by Appalachian Ohio. All of the elements came from different places. There were fables and fairy tales that inspired parts of it, too.”
Evening: Light Rain, acrylic on canvas, 39 x 44"
Other paintings work on a more abstract level, such as Evening: Light Rain, which is built around a tree-like shape of a road that fans out through the center of the painting. A viewer can easily break down the forms and masses, revealing a pleasing collection of shapes that depict a classic American street with houses on either side and tall trees in the yards. The figures, as well as the figures in many of his other works, gaze inward toward the viewer.
Joy by the Sea, acrylic over collage on canvas, 50 x 50"
“I like to show people with a sense of longing. I’m not afraid of some emotions. But one I avoid is irony. Some artists go to the well with it a lot, and that’s fine for them, but I have no irony,” McDaniels says. “Everything is very sincere. I’m not afraid to wear my heart on my sleeve. Joy, harmony, magic…these are emotional tones I’m not afraid to feel as an artist.”
End of Winter: The Last Snowball, acrylic on canvas, 491/2 x 44"
These unironic, unapologetically romantic ideas about the world are what makes McDaniel’s works so fascinating, and what is certainly going to make his Enchantment show an exciting addition to RJD Gallery.
“Craig McDaniel’s works whisk us away to worlds that are only accessible by a vivid imagination,” says Joi Jackson Perle, RJD’s gallery director. “They reveal vibrant scenes filled with charm and wit, places that we would happily visit time and time again.” —
Release, acrylic on canvas, 17 x 22"
RJD Gallery 227 N. Main Street • Romeo, MI 48065 (586) 281-3613 • www.rjdgallery.com
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