Artist Daniel Merriam is known both online and offline for his imaginative style. Described as a contemporary surrealist, his work often weaves together a world that is both fantastic and rooted in the beauty of the Victorian age. The end result has a whimsicality to it that transports the viewer to a different time and place.
“I consider myself a romantic surrealist,” he told Putsch. With influences that include Art Nouveau, Belle Époque, Gothic, Renaissance, Victorian, and vaudeville, he acknowledges nature as his greatest inspiration.
Born in 1963 in a small fishing village in Maine, Merriam taught himself to paint at a very young age. “Between sailing, fishing, and diving I had spent as much time in the water as I did out,” he recalls. “My world was fashioned from the rawness of nature’s reality and the fanciful treatments of my perception.”
According to Merriam, his connection to nature is ingrained in shapes and patterns within his art. “Both my family and our community possessed a whimsical quality that remains in my art to this day,” he notes.
He went on to study mechanical and architectural design at Central Maine Vocational Technical Institute, before turning to the field of architectural design, where his illustrations received numerous awards. It was in 1986 that he shifted his focus solely to fine art.
Since then, Merriam had exhibited his work throughout the United States and Europe. Amongst his notable achievements was exhibiting his paintings next to those of Salvador Dali in a museum show entitled Venus and the Female Intuition.
“Anytime I encounter really good art, I want to go back to the studio and create,” he says. “It’s as if the artist showed me the possibilities. They introduced me to a feeling and I have to have more. The artist does not need to be there in person. Their soul is displayed in their artwork.”
Take a look at some of his imaginative work in the gallery below.
