David Mueller is a do-it-yourself kind of guy.

        When he needed studio space, he found an abandoned church, did a little renovating and turned it not only into a studio but a home.

        When he decided it was time to realize his dream — to give up the lucrative commissioned portraits he was doing and concentrate on his own work — he sequestered himself in his studio and created 55 paintings in eight months.

David Mueller in his studio in a renovated church. (Ernest Coleman photos) | ZOOM |

        On Saturday, he is having a show. But not in an art gallery; he isn't represented by one. But in his studio/home on East Fourth Street in Covington.

        “I am hoping I will have enough success from this show that it will give me enough money in the bank to live for the next eight months or 12 months to paint the next body of work,” he says. “My whole goal from the show is to get to be known nationally and maybe even internationally.”

        From every indication, Mr. Mueller's is an achievable goal. Fellow artists site his technique and skill in representing the human form. Gallery owners call him one of the best painters in town. He is in some of the most important local collections.

        A Mason businessman was so taken by his work, he offered his patronage and supported him for two years.

        “Everything that has ever happened to me in a positive way in my art career,” Mr. Mueller says, “has happened in Cincinnati.”

Quiet solitude

"Black Velvet Dress" by David Mueller | ZOOM |

        Many of the pieces in what he has aptly titled A New Beginning are about solitude — lone figures, many in repose, all serene and safe against the tyranny of the world.

        “There are a lot of people by themselves,” says the 38-year-old artist. “But I don't think it is a negative solitude. I think it's a quiet solace. Just figurative work.”

        Although several local galleries have asked to show his work, Mr. Mueller is intent on going solo.

        “I have admired him for years,” says Barbara Miller, owner of Miller Gallery in Hyde Park. “I think he is one of the top painters. Someday I'd like to carry his work.”

        Many of Mr. Mueller's paintings are of his fiancee, University of Cincinnati student Lori Rumsey, who also helps with the framing. The couple will marry this fall and hope to travel — she while conducting research in environmental science and he painting new cultures and places.

        “The possibilities are endless,” he says.

In the cards

        A native of Blue Island, Ill., Mr. Mueller studied classical painting techniques at the American Art Academy in Chicago, but after graduation went to work in commercial art. When the Gibson Greeting Card Co. of Cincinnati offered him a job, he jumped at the chance to put to use his traditional training.

Finished portraits fill Mueller's Covington studio. | ZOOM |

        “When Gibson called I thought: 'I've got nothing to lose,' he remembers. “It turned out to be the best career decision I ever made. I was doing these little fine art pieces on greeting cards — little impressionistic landscapes and figures. It was perfect.”

        His figurative work blossomed and he was invited to paint the 1984 and 1985 gubernatorial Christmas cards. Three years later he met Ramesh Malhotra, an entrepreneur from Mason, who was home-growing an art colony up north.

        “He said: 'If I was Santa Claus, what would you want?' I said, 'I want to leave the commercial art world completely and get into the fine art world,' ” Mr. Mueller remembers. “He matched my salary and benefits from Gibson for two years. He gave me the jump start I needed.”

Commissioned works

        “David Mueller has been one of the finest young men I have had the opportunity to work with,” Mr. Malhotra says. “He has a talent. It was the greatest pleasure of my life to help him out when he needed it.”

        Although Mr. Malhotra was willing to continue his patronage, Mr. Mueller leveraged his credit cards and struck out on his own, quickly establishing a reputation as a portrait artist.

IF YOU GO

What: A New Beginning, paintings by David Mueller     When: Opening 1-5 p.m. Saturday. Hours: 1-5 p.m. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday through May 19.     Where: The Loft Gallery, 117 E. Fourth St., 2nd floor, Covington     Information: (859) 581-5002 or www.davidmuellerfineart.com

        “Shortly after I left Mason, I began getting people on a waiting list for my commission work,” he says. “Portraiture and other types of things — figurative genre pieces.”

        In addition to portraits including former Ohio Gov. George Voinovich and more recently Ohio Senate President Richard Finan, Mr. Mueller would be asked, for example, “to do something about classical music” and would paint an imaginary trio or quartet in an elaborate music room.

        The paintings sold very well and Mr. Mueller was making a living as a fine artist. But the stress and pressure of commission work made him unhappy and he devised a plan, a way out.

        “I made the decision I was going to finish up a few commissions and get out of the commission business,” he says. “I was very burned out from it and not enjoying anything I worked on anymore.”

Think, paint for self

        The complicated relationship between artist and client and the need for a compatible vision of how the portrait should turn out made Mr. Mueller anxious. As did the money up front binding him to finish the piece.

        “There were times when I have said to people "You can put a gun to my head and say finish this painting' and I would just look at it and say "Shoot me because I don't know what to do,' ” he says.

        Thus the plan; he would once again paint what he wanted to paint: whimsical portraits in the style of John Singer Sargent and classically rendered plein-air landscapes.

        “David has a wonderful gestural mark,” says fellow artist Michael Scott. “He is one of the best plein-air painters in the city.”

Quest for beauty

        There is quite a range of subject matter in the show: portraits, landscapes, seascapes and paintings inspired by historical family photographs.

        “I am doing figurative things with some sort of emotion attached to them — a gesture or the way I have placed the figure within the composition,” he says. “I hope when people look at one of my paintings they feel some sort of emotion. It's mostly about simple aesthetics. I want people to say: Isn't that beautiful.”

        Patricia Weiner of the Patricia Weiner Gallery in Montgomery, where Mr. Mueller has shown in the past, says his paintings fit well with the work of artists of the 19th and 20th centuries. “He is a very good artist,” she says. “His paintings appeal to a lot of people, and he is in very good collections in Cincinnati.”

        The paintings will sell for $1,000 to $15,000, and there will be limited edition prints for about $450.

        “At times, it has been hectic,” Mr. Mueller says. “But for the most part, this is the most fun I have had painting in years. Especially when I begin a painting, and I am really into it, and I take that blank canvas and put down fresh color, and new compositional ideas and things are really flowing — I am really having fun.”

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