I am a self-taught artist who grew up watching John Nagy's “Learn to Draw” on TV and yearned to create wonderful art like him! Years later, I simply bought some oil painting supplies and magically, all the forces of the artistic universe seemingly came into focus, as my oil painting attempts began to take on life, form and function. I've participated in, and painted at, a number of fine art exhibitions, fairs, outdoor venues and sidewalk shows around New York State and Pennsylvania .

I now paint mostly using water media. I strive to show that watercolor can be bold, rich, colorful and dramatic. I see artistic inspiration everywhere I go. My heart soars with each stroke. I achieve a deep sense of satisfaction whenever I complete a painting that I feel succeeds in capturing what my eyes see or my heart feels. I paint simply for sheer enjoyment and for spiritual gratification. The natural world is beautiful and pregnant with myriad, exciting possibilities, and I feel infinitely blessed to be able to observe and explore so much of it, ultimately trying to capture its essence on paper and canvas.

Essentially, my paintings are rooted in fragmented bits of reality, as well as my own personal existence, which I use as a springboard for situations I may actually observe in pleine air or may imagine could have happened or existed. If I can establish a communion between my viewers and their own experiences with nature, if I can help them to discover and to reaffirm their bonds with the natural world, then my efforts have been rewarded. I truly relish working in the immediacy of watercolor. Painting outdoors, en pleine air, in the moment, invigorates me and brings vitality to my work and psyche.

I frequently offer free watercolor demonstrations, once a month, at the ARTSPACE Gallery located at 18 North 7th Street in Stroudsburg , PA. I also teach watercolor painting classes throughout the region for the ARTSPACE Gallery, the Monroe County Parks & Recreation Department and the Pocono Arts Council. I have presented public and private painting demonstrations for the Pocono Mountain Arts Group, the Pocono Mountains Art Council and the Carbon County Art League.

In 2006, I was featured doing a painting demonstration at the Eastern Monroe County - Hughes Library on the Channel 13 Blue Ridge Cable TV’s evening news.

In 2007, one of my paintings, “Home Pool on the Beaverkill,” was purchased by Aventis Corporation and now resides their permanent art collection at the Sanofi-pasteur corporate headquarters in Swiftwater, PA.

Recently, thanks to three classes I took with our ARTSPACE Gallery Director Rich Spezzano, I have become deeply interested in digital painting through the use of Adobe Photoshop CS3 and printing the resulting images directly onto watercolor paper or canvas using archival inks. While I am not walking away from direct painting techniques, this new painting technique now gives me added options for the creation of beautiful art, and something I can do when the weather makes my pleine air sorties an impossibility.

Whether in the classroom setting, or during a public lecture presentation, I love to share my unbridled enthusiasm and painting knowledge with others by teaching my watercolor techniques and sharing my artistic vision in classes and workshops throughout this region. I maintain an art studio in Saylorsburg, PA, in the heart of the Pocono Mountains, and share a residence with my wife, Barbara, and our two dogs Bella and Cali, high atop a bucolic mountain ridge, overlooking breath-taking wooded vistas, where life is, indeed, quite beautiful!

CURRENT ON-LINE ART EXHIBITIONS:
http://www.artspacegallery.net
http://www.WillDaskal.com

PAST GROUP ART SHOWS & EXHIBITIONS:

1990-2006

Brooklyn Community Arts Association; Brooklyn , NY
Sheepshead Bay Branch, Brooklyn Public Library System; Brooklyn , NY
Kings Highway Branch, Brooklyn Public Library System; Brooklyn , NY
Waterfront Arts Shows, Sheepshead Bay , Brooklyn , NY

Advanced Radiology Art Expo, Tobyhanna , PA
ARTSPACE Gallery, 18 North 7th Street , Stroudsburg , PA
Art in Our Backyard, Barrett Elementary Center, Mountainhome , PA
Buck Hill Fine Arts Festival, Mountainhome , PA
Chant Realty Fall Art Show, Lords Valley , PA
Clymer Library Art Show, Pocono Pines, PA
Dorflinger Wildlife Sanctuary Summer Art Show, White Mills, PA
Ertle Volvo Showrooms, Rte 611 “Spring Like Art” Show, Stroudsburg , PA
ESSA Bank Corporate Center, Stroudsburg , PA
ESSA Bank in Stroudsburg, Stroudsburg , PA
Festival of Wood Art Show; Grey Towers , Milford , PA
Grey Towers Winter Art Show, Milford , PA
Hemlock Farms Art Fair, Hemlock Farms, Lords Valley , PA
Keller-Williams Real Estate Art EXPO, Stroudsburg , PA
Mountaintop Lodge Art Show, Mountaintop, PA
PENN Securities Bank Art Expo, Mt. Pocono , PA
PNC Bank Art Expo, Mt. Pocono , PA
Pocono Arts Council Members’ Exhibition, PAC, Stroudsburg , PA
RIV4 Art Show at the Madelon Powers Gallery at ESU, East Stroudsburg , PA
Sherman Theatre Lobby, Main Street , Stroudsburg , PA
Sky Top Lodge– PMAC Fall Art Show, Sky Top, PA
Sky Top Lodge– PMAC Spring Art Show, Sky Top, PA

2007: SOLO ART SHOWS:

May 31 – June 27, 2007: AVENTIS FINE ARTS GALLERY (SANOFI-PASTEUR CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS), Scotrun, PA

August 4 – 26, 2007: ARTSPACE Gallery, 18 North 7th Street , Stroudsburg , PA …OPENING RECEPTION ON AUGUST 4, 2007 from 6 to 9 pm.

ART MEMBERSHIPS:

ARTSPACE Gallery
Pocono Arts Council
Pocono Mountain Arts Council
Pocono Mountains Art Group
Pocono Watercolor Associates
“Come Paint with Me” Pleine Air Group

POSITIONS HELD:

ARTSPACE Gallery,: Director of Marketing

Pocono Mountains Art Group, Treasurer

Pocono Watercolor Associates,: Vice President