David McBride first showed his artwork at Homeland Center in 2019. This year, he jumped at the chance to exhibit his pieces again.
“I was so pleased to come back out here and hang stuff again; it was nutty,” he said. “If one person sees it and likes one of them, I’d be so happy.”
David is the summer artist featured in the Art Association of Harrisburg’s Community Exhibit program. The quarterly exhibits showcase AAH members selected for their artistic compatibility with the Homeland community. Their works hang in Homeland’s sunny Florida Room gallery, giving passing residents, staff, and visitors an artistic respite.
McBride grew up in Harrisburg’s historic Bellevue Park neighborhood, the youngest of five siblings. His father was a physician and master craftsman who built a grandfather clock for each of his children – and his dad’s interest in art got David’s attention.
David said he also spent many happy hours painting with his mother, “my muse.” She would ask him to reproduce famous paintings by Monet or Hopper. To this day, he has a copy of Monet’s ‘The Magpie’ he made at her request.
“If she saw an image on a Christmas card, she would give me the card and say, ‘Paint it,’” he said. “Monet’s ‘Magpie’ was worth $28 million, and I’d paint an 8 by 10 and say, ‘It looks like it.’”
David and his mother started a routine at the end of his workdays, when they would sit at her dining room table and paint copies of pictures they liked together.
Even when his mother’s hands were too arthritic to hold a paintbrush, she dabbed the canvas with a Q-tip. She would offer gentle critiques of his work while also encouraging him to continue.
“It was kind of therapy for her and a way to be present with her son, and priceless for me,” he said. “She was involved in the process of painting. That was wonderful. She was very supportive of me and my efforts.”
David is a retired special education and science teacher from East Pennsboro School District. Recently, he painted a large canvas for a former student, creating the feel she wanted from a photo of La Jolla Cove in California.
“I thought the difference in painting big pictures was that you use more paint and bigger brushes, but it’s an entirely different animal,” he said. “You’re challenged in terms of perspective on a huge campus. There’s so much to look at. Where are you going to direct the viewer’s eye?”
He now focuses on capturing the feeling behind his pictures, refining the techniques that bring emotions and senses to the canvas. In a small, dramatic nighttime scene hanging at Homeland, David painted the aurora borealis, barely visible behind the trees painted over them.
Lately, he has been focused on painting skies.
“Our back deck looks west, so I see sunsets every night and sunrises every morning,” he said. “I want to paint wonderful skies. To do that, you have to paint a zillion skies.”
He paints the skies that he sees and then adds below them whatever popped into his imagination, whether it’s a beach, a mountain peak, or a forest.
“Clouds are water, so you’re really painting water in the sky and how it takes the light and how it takes the shadow,” he said. “You can’t have beautiful light without dark, so how do you build the dark into it to complement the light?”
The point is clear in a painting where the ocean waves blend almost indistinguishably with the sky and clouds above.
David draws inspiration from his extensive travels with his wife. They recently returned from Alaska. For their 40th anniversary this year, they plan a trip to Yosemite before flying to Hawaii for island hopping. With travel friends, they have been to Key West and the Tetons, and they are planning trips to Italy and Ireland.
For his latest Homeland exhibit, David selected works that will evoke memories and connect with Homeland residents.
“How many memories exist in a place like this?” he said. “There are so many stories to tell, so many places that people have seen and still remember fondly, and so they might see one of the paintings and say, ‘Oh, that looks like Nag’s Head,’ or ‘That looks like Bethany Beach.’ That is so special to me.”
Homeland Center (www.homelandcenter.org) offers levels of care including personal care, memory care, skilled nursing and rehabilitation. Homeland also provides hospice, home care, home health and palliative care services to serve the diverse and changing needs of families throughout central Pennsylvania. For more information or to arrange a tour, please call 717-221-7900.
