Ron Davis 1937-Present

Ronald Davis was born in Santa Monica, California in 1937, but was raised in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He started off by studying engineering at the University of Wyoming between 1955 and 1956. By 1959, when he was twenty two, he realized his true calling as a painter and enrolled in the San Francisco Art Institute in 1960.

During the four years he spent at the San Francisco Art Institute, Davis's work incorporated abstract expressionist elements and rigid geometric forms. After 1964, he moved to Los Angeles and had his first one man show at the Nicholas Wilder Gallery in Los Angeles. His art was a dynamic force changing with the different materials Davis brought together. "He became known for works in which loose, gestural paint surfaces were distributed across large sheets of plastic in geometric formats that suggested foreshortened boxes and frames (Albright)."

From 1966-1972, he used colored polyester resins and fiberglass, and learned silk-screening and lithography. At one point Davis even combined his interest in music and art to create 'musical sculpture'. Davis returned to painting on canvas after becoming aware of the risks involved with the toxic materials he had been exposing himself to while producing some of his work.

He built a large studio in his Malibu, California house in 1975-1978 where he could work on large scale geometric paintings. In 1990, Davis traveled to Taos, New Mexico and purchased some property there. He used the land to build a series of traditional Navajo based dwellings (Hogans). He relocated to Arroyo Honda for good in 1993 and sold his Malibu house. As of 1995 he was still known to be producing art.