David Utiger's small, intensely detailed watercolor and ink pen works on paper are reflective of the Northern Vermont landscape where he lives. Fairytale-like, soft, quiet scenes depict veils of light and finger-like clouds weaving spectrally in and out of highly stylized rolling hills, trees, and lakes. Every wash of carefully placed color is overlaid by thousands of tiny dots. Sometimes a cabin is tucked into the woods or hills, other times an animal or humans are communing there. Having ancestry in the region going back some 200 years, Utiger's connection to place, materiality, and process are rooted in his familial relationship to his environment and his personal experiences in contemplation of the landscape. While he calls his paintings "wholly imaginary,” he also acknowledges the palpable influence in his works of New England landscapes.
Utiger lives and works in the small town of Peru, Vermont which has been described as 36 square miles of "trees, bears and mountain lions." He studied at Parsons School of Design, Massachusetts College of Art, and Maryland School of Art, has BFA from Washington University in St. Louis. He has exhibited at The Copley Society of Art, The Brattleboro Museum, The Southern Vermont Art Center in Manchester Vermont, and Furchgott-Sourdiffe Gallery.