The Gulf of Mexico

Drawing on numerous traditions, including African art, cubism, and folk art, David Bates’s paintings are simultaneously abstract and representational. His subjects, rooted in the landscape of the South, evoke the scenery of southwest Arkansas, as well as the Gulf Coast of Texas, his home state.

Bates discussed Gulf of Mexico, stating, “I’ve been going to the Gulf of Mexico since I was three years old- I’ve always been inspired by that place: the hard working people, the real people of that coast. The scale of the painting is pretty large, but it seems to appropriate because of the larger-than-life size character of the people, and it also gives me a lot of room to throw paint around. The man in the painting is a shrimper and a charter captain. I usually paint these guys from memory because it would be a pretty cold day in hell before they’d ever sit down and let me pose them for a painting or even a photograph- they’re not real fond of that kind of thing. They think of me as a fellow fisherman, not an artist, and that’s great with me. I try to make these paintings as accessible as I can and to share my experience, but this is a painting, and the act of painting to me is like the act of fishing to the guy in the painting- it’s just what we do!”