Derek Bond Artist

“It was the middle of May, and I was diving in the waters of the Pacific Ocean not far from my home. The nightfish smelt were moving in and out of the surf. The sun was shining through the fog creating a brilliant light, which danced about the water. From the corner of my dive mask I saw the ocean light up in brilliant silver and blue. The giant school of nightfish swam in front of me, responding in a synchronous wave to a gesture from my hand. I was fascinated by their reaction. My creative drive comes from these kinds of connections with nature.”

Born in Madison, Wisconsin to Dr. Gerard C. Bond and Dixie D. Evans, his father, a world-renowned paleo-climatologist and geologist, and his mother, a nationally recognized educator, raised him in an intellectually and artistically rich environment. Derek spent his early years on a cattle ranch in central Utah; the summers traveling across North and South America, hiking the Canadian Rockies and exploring the Alaska wilderness with his father.

Derek started drawing at a very young age, and with his parent’s patient and skillful guidance, he became skilled in many types of renderings. He studied art on his own as a child admiring may masters of Renaissance and American painting. Later he received a B.A. in Fine Art from Humboldt State University in northern California.

Avoiding the traditional academic approach, Derek is a completely self-taught egg tempera painter who is often seen as transcending the rules. Dividing his time between the rocky coastline of his northern California home and the aired desert landscape of Utah, Derek maintains a relatively consistent realist painting style. Derek finds inspiration to utilize in his artwork in many outdoor activities such as fly-fishing, an activity for which he was a casting instructor and part time lecturer at Humboldt State University, free-diving, spear fishing, hiking and cycling. He gravitates to several identifiable landscape subjects and models, to which he returns repeatedly. During his solitary walks and dives he develops an extraordinary connection and spiritual understanding of his surroundings.

These connections are the primary means of inspiration for his work. Derek composes numerous studies and creates preliminary drawings and watercolors he uses for later work. The result is a haunting interpretation and rendering of real life.

Derek was introduced to his favorite medium, egg-tempera, by wandering through an art gallery in a small coastal Oregon town. “This magnificent little painting by a local painter was hanging on the north wall of the gallery. The light was hitting it from the south, and the deep translucent layering of color moving in and out of the panel mesmerized me. I knew at that moment I would learn to paint with egg tempera.”