Don Berger: Biography

Serious art studies began at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was accepted in 1949. He attended painting classes taught by his uncle, Edgar Rupprecht, and aunt, Isobel MacKinnon. Other art instructors were Boris Anisfeld, Paul Wieghardt and Leroy Niemann. Granted a B.F .A. degree and a teacher’s certificate, he taught arts & crafts at the Glencoe, Illinois school system for nine years. Simultaneously, he was marketing prints of pen & ink studies of Chicago scenes in downtown galleries and exhibiting paintings at the Deerpath Gallery in Lake Forest.

In 1968, the Berger family of five moved to a ranch in the B.C. interior where he painted landscapes of the Cariboo & Chilcotin, exhibiting them at the Fraser Gallery in Vancouver, B.C. Since then he’s exhibited at the Waterwheel Gallery in Estes Park, Colo., R. Ricketts Gallery in Dallas, Texas, and the Horizons West Gallery in Vancouver. Galleries that he is currently exhibiting his works in can be found on the ‘To Purchase’ page.

Artist’s Statement:

Undoubtedly, gardens have provided inspiration for painters since the beginning of time. For me this connection came when I started gardening with my wife on a property which we had purchased. Increasingly, I became aware of the immense possibilities that the floral world could offer for the canvas. The major factors in this newfound collaboration were colour and form, light and shadow. Observing the interplay of these dynamic forces throughout the season, I began to see flowers as exquisite works of art.

In my work, I use colour, form, composition and tension to express both bold and subtle essences. Art is successful to the degree that an emotional or spiritual dialogue has taken place with the viewer, engaged in such a way as to inspire participation in the work itself. Earlier florals failed to accomplish this consistently, until I discovered that in order to attract the viewer's attention, I had to enlarge the painting surface significantly. In this larger-than-life likeness, the viewer is drawn into the blossom, almost catching the scent, and seeing details that would be missed on the smaller scale. It is something akin to viewing an ordinary subject under a microscope and being surprised at what has gone previously unnoticed, though often seen before.

After studying and painting the complex structure of the flowers we so often take for granted, I feel it is my vested emotion in the painting, that untimately pays tribute to the subject.