All of Dale TerBush's paintings spring spontaneously
from his imagination, his subconscious, and the undefined magical place
from which the artist draws his inspiration. He does not work from photographs
or from a preconceived mental picture. "The paintings just happen,"
he remarks. "I always begin at the top and work down. It's like writing
music. You hear a part of a melody and it draws out the rest of the notes.
By the time you're done, you have a song." TerBush was born in the Chicago suburb of Elmhurst
in 1948. At the age of two, he moved with his family to Southern California's
San Fernando Valley; at five, he began painting. Like many other artists,
TerBush was pulled in two directions. His desire to pursue painting conflicted
with the impulse to take a "regular" job with a steady paycheck.
Yielding, he put his art career aside and positioned himself as one of
America's top interior designers. He also spent eleven years as a corporate
executive. Still, he longed to return to his art. Dale TerBush feels that
his life as a businessman, tempered by success and failure, gave him a
strong foundation from which to pursue painting full-time.
Having come to a clear decision to devote him to painting helped him to
find himself artistically, to sharpen his natural abilities. "Working
every day, always pushing myself, I have come to know my process, my tools
and palette inside and out. I have no indecision now in my art, which is
a huge gift. Many of us spend so much of our lives trying to function in
the midst of indecision." Although TerBush resumed his career by painting
in oils, today he works exclusively in acrylics. TerBush is so confident
in his work that he starts a painting with no preconceived idea of its
composition. He allows each piece to unfold as he works. Looking at his
works as a whole, TerBush says he owes a great debt to the painters of
the Hudson River School - the 19th Century body of artists who glorified
nature, creating Eden-like scenes of lakes, rivers, mountains, and other
pastoral subjects.
Mountains are often the setting for TerBush's scenes. TerBush explains
his attraction to mountain scenes as mainly visual - despite the stunning
realism of his paintings; he has actually spent little time in the mountains.
"I love the jaggedness of rocky peaks against the softness of the
sky - the foundation of these two against each other, and the subtleties
of light, fascinate me. I love the clashing textures." TerBush believes
people have responded enthusiastically to his work because "I don't
believe beauty ever went out of style. I believe people were conditioned
through the media to appreciate pop art and modern art, but that they never
gave up their love of beautiful things ... they are much more conscious
now of our environment and its fragility. They want to touch or see something
representing what this country used to look like." That is the magic
of Dale TerBush's paintings - that they are not mere landscapes, but poetic
interpretations full of mystery generated from rocks, trees, and light
- captivating and enchanting the viewer.
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