Biography

Daniel W. Pinkham “American Poet” by Sergei Bongart

Daniel W. Pinkham was born in Los Angeles on January 31, 1952.  He showed both interest and ability in art as a young child and began studying through private instruction at the age of nine.  He later attended Art Center College of Design from 1972 to 1974, after which he received a scholarship to apprentice for five years with Russian-born artist and renowned teacher Sergei Bongart (1919-1985). In 1980 Pinkham opened his own art school, which he operated for five years.

To further his artistic training Pinkham traveled throughout Europe in 1985 for several months, studying the masterworks in prominent museums. Upon returning from Europe, he journeyed across the United States focusing on plein air painting and connecting with nature as his main source of inspiration. Pinkham has been a recognized principle force in the resurgence of plein air painting, leading by example that plein air painting is not only a career, but a lifestyle. 

In 1982 Pinkham founded the Plein Air Artists of California , a group of six artists dedicated to painting on location. In addition, he became a founding member of the Plein Air Painters of America.

In 2005 Daniel W. Pinkham took the top honor at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum’s Plein Air Exhibition, which featured more than 150 new paintings of the timeless beauty of the Sonoran Desert created by nearly 50 of today’s premier plein air painters. The museum’s executive director, Robert Edison, personally presented Pinkham with the $10,000 Grand Prize for his 12″ x 16″ oil painting Light of Day.

Pinkham is a Signature Member of the California Art Club (CAC), as well as a member of the Club’s Board of Directors. At the CAC he has taken on the responsibility of working with the Club’s Mentor Program Members—art students and professionals under the age of thirty. Other professional memberships include Oil Painters of America as a Signature Member and the Portuguese Bend Artist Colony, which he and his wife, Vicki Pinkham, founded in the South Bay region of Los Angeles in 1998 to preserve open space and natural habitat areas. Furthermore, Pinkham was selected by the National Park Service as the Artist in Residence at the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. In 2009 Daniel W. Pinkham was awarded the Gold Medal for his painting, Enlightened, at the California Art Club’s 98th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition held at the Pasadena Museum of California Art.