David Wilson was raised in Montana. He has taken many trips to Latin America—including a year in Brazil and over a year teaching on a Fulbright Exchange in Chile.  He has also taken many trips to Honduras, a couple of junkets to Cuba, and some extended visits to Spain.  His primary vocation thus leaned toward work with languages and he has spent the last twenty years working as a high school Spanish teacher, translating for Migrant Education and medical groups.  

A significant change came for Wilson when he took a one-year sabbatical to live in Guanajuato, Mexico, with his partner who was teaching at the university.  He spent the entire year in his studio dedicated to drawing and painting.  

“Artistic life in Mexico can be a twenty-four hour roller-coaster of workshops, gallery openings, animated discussion, and artistic interchange—that leads one to believe it is a bona-fide existence.  I began showing there at that time and have returned to Mexico every summer since to work in a friend’s studio and paint plein air.”  

Two important focuses in Wilson’s landscape paintings are his continued interest in manipulating texture and his attempt to capture a certain spontaneity.