Daven describes himself as an ‘urban realist’, painting life as he sees it on the city’s streets. Dave is essentially self-taught spending only one year in a twice weekly evening open painting session at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. A long time Chicagoan and only moving to St. Louis in 2006 Dave is fascinated by urban life. In 2007 he picked up his brushes again after a 15 year hiatus.Since moving to St. Louis, Dave alternates his urban subject matter between foreign and other urban settings and those of St. Louis. One of his artistic intentions is to publish a book of his strictly St. Louis works, ‘St. Louis, It’s People and Places’. Dave is a studio painter. Walking the streets with his camera he constantly searches for images that capture his imagination. The first phase of his effort is to capture the image in multiple shots even returning numerous times as the lighting changes. He uses his photos to develop a final composition. The next phase, the drawing of the piece, is critical to his work and can take significant time. Lastly, the final coloration and painting of the work completes the cycle.

Daven's works prior to 1991 are in many private collections. Since starting to paint again in 2007, a number of his watercolors are in midwest collections. The more notable are:

Missouri Athletic Club (3)

• Fight Night at the MAC
• Service and Sacrifice, A Rainy Day at Arlington
• USS Missouri (SSN780)

Bruce and Barbara Feldacker Labor Art Collection

• Cement Work
• The collection is promised to and part of it is displayed at the Mercantile Library

St. Louis University, College Church

• A Mosaic of Color

Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder , State of Missouri

• Across the Finish Line

Dr. and Mrs. Popovic

• A Misty Morning

Kruse Farms

• Steven

Daven can be reached at davenaanderson@gmail.com.