102 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF: DUSTIN ADAMSON ings. I am not trying to impress people with how well I can render something. It’s more about the language I speak that is visual and trying to get people to feel a certain way.” In “Ruminations,” Dustin emphasizes the fleshy quality of the skin, rendering it more lifelike, and highlights details on the pen and glasses to move the viewer’s eye through the painting. In another one of Dustin’s works titled “Stir Me Up,” a young woman deep in thought evokes a sense of quiet and slowing down, a tone signature to his style.“Think of works by artists such as Caravaggio and Rembrandt. My paintings tend to have a muted color palette so I have to emphasize the gradation from light to dark to create a sense of form and volume. I use darker passages to create atmosphere and focus the viewer’s eyes.” Now a teacher himself, Dustin strives to pass on those traditional fundamentals to students on the Peninsula. “I want to make it accessible to people that can’t go to a classical program and give them access to the French academic style,” he shares. He offers several courses, including portrait painting in oil, at the Pacific Art ABOVE: (clockwise, from top left) Slowed Down; Stir Me Up; Cobalt. art and animation, he graduated with distinction from San Diego State University in multimedia arts. He then entered the workforce during the 2010 recession and worked construction jobs to make ends meet while seeking career opportunities. “If I am going to struggle, I am going to struggle doing art,” he decided. It was then that he committed to the life of a fine artist. Dustin immersed himself in art, honing his painting, drawing and sculpting skills under acclaimed art teachers and anatomy instructors at the Bay Area Classical Artist Atelier in San Carlos. “I was a journeyman floor layer and paid my way through art school,” he adds. Taking his art education further, Dustin enrolled at the Florence Academy of Art US in New Jersey, where he refined his painting skills focusing on the 19th-century, classical-realist tradition. He describes his instructors as world-class in the realist community—one of whom even traced his lineage back to Napoleon Bonaparte’s court painter. Dustin flourished in this creative environment and his work “Ruminations” was selected as the academy’s painting of the year from all of its schools internationally. “I was trying to paint a combination of everything I learned,” he shares. “It is most important to me to convey emotion in my paint-
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