Donald Archer grew up in Southern California during the 1940’s and 50’s.
While he focused his energy on painting when he entered the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1963, his lifelong connection with music has played a significant part in his creative evolution. A love of philosophy and Eastern religion, particularly Buddhism, broadened his approach and enriched his experience.
After his university education, Archer taught for ten years, six of those as an instructor in fine art at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. Articulating his ideas clarified his direction and led him to devote increasing attention and energy to his own work. In 1979, he resigned his faculty position and moved to Santa Barbara in order to pursue painting full-time.
In 1992, after 13 years in Santa Barbara county, Archer moved north to California’s central coast— near Big Sur and the rural inland valleys — where he continues to live and work.
Though founded on recognizable imagery, design and feeling are more accurately the subject of his painting. It is not hard to see that Archer began his career as an abstract painter. For him, painting must convey feelings and ideas that go beyond mere appearance. Archer sees the adventure of painting as walking a tightrope between abstraction and realism, incorporating the best of both worlds.
In addition to numerous solo and group exhibitions in public museums and commercial galleries, he participates in selected fine art festivals along the west coast.
His work is included in collections, both public and private, throughout the United States and abroad. Donald Archer’s paintings have been featured in American Artist magazine and Southwest Art Magazine as well as six books, The Oak Group: The First Ten Years; Ranchos: Santa Barbara's Land Grant Ranchos; The Oak Group: Twenty Years 1986-2006; American Art Collector: VOL. 1, Book 1; American Art Ccollector: Vol. 3, Book 1; Ranches & Rolling Hills: Art Of West Marin — A Land In Trust.
