Biography
John David Wissler received his MFA in 1989 from Parsons School of Design in New York, where he studied with Leland Bell, John Heliker, Paul Resika, and Larry Rivers. He also studied with George Sorrels at Kutztown (PA) University, where he received his BFA. His studies included travel to France, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Germany and Italy.
Wissler was awarded Artist Residencies at the Heliker-LaHotan Foundation on Cranberry Island in Maine (2009) and The Borgo Finochietto Tuscany, Italy (2012). In addition to teaching and lecturing for fine art classes at institutions in Pennsylvania, the artist has taught by invitation at the prestigious Arrowmont School of Art and Craft in Gatlinburg, TN.
John David is represented by Lancaster Galleries, Lancaster Pa., Islesford Artist Gallery, Islesford Maine and Brick Walk Fine Art, West Hartford CT. Recent solo exhibitions (catalogues available) at Lancaster Galleries include: Italy; Drawings: Great Cranberry Island; Wissler: Recent Paintings; John David Wissler: Paintings – Early 2011; Wissler’s England (essay by Irwin Richman, PhD) and Gathering Light: The Landscapes of John David Wissler (essays by Michael Allen and Ruth Bernard).
Selected group exhibitions include Three Artists, Three Views – Golias, Kocher, Wissler, From Observation: An Invitational (catalogue with essay by John Goodrich), Lancaster Galleries, Pennsylvania; Maine as Muse, Lohin Geduld Gallery, New York; Pennsylvania Seen, Lancaster Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; Continuing Views , Prince Street Gallery, New York; Visions of the Susquehanna, (originating at the Lancaster Museum of Art, Lancaster, PA traveling to Roberson Museum and Science Center, Binghamton, NY and elsewhere); The Art of the Landscape (curated by Susan Miller, Orange Hall Gallery, SUNY Orange, Middletown, New York; Friday Friends: Michael Allen, Bill Kocher, Kurt Moyer, George Sorrels, & J.D. Wissler (Phillips Museum of Art, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA).
Public and corporate collections of note include Hershey Chocolate Corporation; The Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence; Kutztown University; Trout, Ebersole, and Groff; Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission, the Martin Art Gallery at Muhlenberg College; and the Parsons School of Design.
Artist Statement
“My passion has always been the landscape. I feel a sense of history when painting… the painters I admire and study, Corot, Constable, Turner, Inness, Bonard, Resika…the history of the land itself and my own familiar connection to it. Painting comes through the study of nature…transformed, not merely copied. Seeing the immediacy of the place…what strikes me first. The way trees react to fields, colour to colour, shape to shape…pushing and pulling the plastic nature of the picture plane, creating believable space.
I find the challenge of using what I have observed, taking it to my studio, and creating a new painting invigorating. Drawing upon the memory of place and experience…using the language I have learned from nature, trying to keep the painting fresh…space, clarity, surprise…that’s painting!”
Interview on Savvy Painter
Art at Kings Oaks 