D. ALEXANDER WIELAND
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Born and raised in Philadelphia, I learned to paint from my mother and from school art teachers. I did take some classes, the most formative of which was an evening series I took after college with abstract expressionist Sam Feinstein, a resident of Philadelphia who taught at The Art Students’ League, in New York. He was of the Hans Hofmann school and was exceptionally gifted in articulating his philosophy of painting. He felt that the essence of a painting is its arrangements of form and color, and that its beauty is found in those elements not simply in good drawing and pictorial content. I have believed in his thinking despite my rather conservative tendencies toward pictorial landscapes.

I was an English teacher, but have painted regularly all my life. I moved to Massachusetts in 1958, and I have lived in Concord since 1964. I was fortunate to have been given a sabbatical year in 1969-70. We, my wife and three small children, lived in Lenk, a small village in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, where we spent a glorious year hiking, skiing, and traveling. I painted nearly every day in a rented room and, through regular attention to it, learned a great deal about painting. I am now retired and free to spend lots of time in my studio.

I paint mostly landscapes - either from my mind’s eye or inspired by photos or the works of masters. New England scenes are a prevalent subject matter. I seldom paint anywhere but in my studio. I have worked in many media, mostly oils and watercolor. I have enjoyed making illustrations for poems, classic stories, or tales I have composed.

I have been a longtime member of the Concord Art Association; and have served on the Board of The Emerson Umbrella. I have exhibited in galleries in Concord, Lexington, Cambridge, Stowe, Vermont, and Portland, Maine. No museums own anything I ever did nor have I won any prestigious awards! Nor am I nearly finished my quest to become as proficient as I think I could be. But painting is a lifelong pursuit that is more than fun; it is a continual challenge to go beyond where I have gone before.