David McGlothlin is an American contemporary artist who has spent over five decades immersed in painting. Entirely self-taught, his work reflects a deep commitment to exploration and reinvention. Over the years, his style has moved fluidly through abstraction, realism, surrealism, and pop—but painting has always remained at the center of his creative life.

Midway through his career, McGlothlin spent over a decade working as an illustrator, contributing to children’s books, product packaging, commercial displays, and large-scale murals. That period added new dimensions to his visual language, but the canvas has always been his most personal space for experimentation and expression.

His current work draws from the grandeur of Renaissance painting, the drama of the Baroque, and the bold immediacy of the pop movement. His imagery is sparked by fragments —of memory, of art history, of things seen in daily life—and driven by instinct, surface, and color.

At the heart of it all is the pure joy and thrill of painting—the physical act, the process of discovery, and the sense of connection that comes from putting color to canvas. For McGlothlin, painting isn’t just a practice—it’s a lifelong passion.