David Kunhardt / Oil Painting, Mixed Media, and more

David is as much at home applying his creativity to a challenging painting, or developing an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to tackling climate change. We asked him to elaborate a bit (our guess is he could have filled more space).

This is what he shared:

“I am not an artist. I have been “drawing on the right side of my brain” in design of renovations, repurposing historic buildings, and creating partnerships that serve multiple purposes for investors, tenants, and users of community development. Over the last 15 years, I have utilized three-dimensional synthesis of the scientific, economic, and political aspects of Climate Change, the biggest threat our species faces, to present awful realities and hopeful solutions to any who will listen.

In the physical arts, which Middlebury encouraged, I have primarily used a camera and paints. Three pieces for the Midd ’72 Creates represent three periods of life:

1. The P Street Bridge I painted in about 1982, when I was heavily focused on historic preservation, reuse and restoration in Washington DC.

2. Mount Tamalpais I captured in 2000 in oils from the top of Christmas Tree Hill in Marin County, CA where we lived for two dozen years. I was casually escaping my job in corporate investments, breathing in the natural world.

3. The mixed-media driftwood school of fish I assembled in 2021 entirely of found objects on Scarborough Beach, near where we have lived for one year. Let nature tell the story (with a few touches of enhancement).

I am impressed and intimidated by the rest of my cohorts’ artworks, but nevertheless wish to share my hobby as proof that I might not be one-dimensional.”

Contact & Inquiries:

Reach out to David for more about his paintings, to ask a question, or just to catch up. You can reach him at:

email: davidkunhardt8@gmail.com

Click images to enlarge ►