Small Works Projects presents "First Painting" by David Wilson at Minnesota Street Project.

"First Painting" presents one large-scale new work by David Wilson alongside a group of recent and older work. Wilson has spent the last two decades developing a practice around carrying materials out to the places he works. He has grounded his process in paper, ink, pencil, and watercolor. Having left behind an indoor studio practice, David pursues a free approach that centers exploration and the capturing of moments in place, natural to the spirit of drawing and the weight of paper. Over the last few years, an interest in oil paint and canvas has brought up a curiosity as to how a person who draws might paint.

 This exhibition presents David Wilson's first oil painting on canvas, made using the same process he has used to make large scale works on paper: each day carrying out a new canvas to work from the same vantage point at a site in the Oakland Hills, continuing each day's canvas from the memory of the last and piecing together the full group of canvases only in the end to reveal a whole. This whole is the sum of individual experiences of the place over time. This piece is 24 canvases, marking 24 days visiting a site in Oakland's Claremont Canyon throughout the month of December 2025. This particular location, off a deer trail that he followed years ago, has developed into an important place for David. He has created a series of large scale works here, including his first color work in 2020, a watercolor composed of 75 distinct pages. It is a site he now associates with encouraging himself to try new things, using the familiarity and the deep relationship with the place and the view as a mirror to reflect on what else has changed.