About Your Hosts
Host Episode 1- 10 - Chevalier David Jansen MDA
David started painting in the early 70's while still in high school. After college, he worked in the family business for 18 years, before he and his wife Martha started the Jansen Art Studio in 1997.
David received his CDA (Certified Decorative Artist) in 1987, and his MDA (Master Decorative Artist) in 1990. He has also been honored with the Gold Medal from the Korean Decorative Painters and "knighted" with the title "Chevalier" by France's Order of Lafayette, both bestowed upon him for his work in preserving and teaching the Decorative Arts.
In 2002, David and Martha moved from California to Pennsylvania, where they are currently expanding and growing their studio and business. Also in that same year, David joined with chemist Rich Potter to produce a high quality new generation acrylic called JansenArt Traditions, which were produced by DecoArt.
The original Traditions formula was improved upon in 2009, when Global Art Supply produced Heritage Multimedia Resin Acrylics, manufactured by Matisse Derivan in Sydney, Australia. The new and improved version of the JansenArt line has remarkable potential. It can be used to execute many new techniques which previously were not possible without the pigment and resin improvements that were made when the Heritage Multimedia line was produced. Today, David concentrates his teaching on limited palettes and educates artists on product safety and low cost alternatives available. His moto is you don't need dozens of brushes and 100's of colors to paint beautiful things. For the past 3 years he has used 14 colors and less than 10 brushes to paint everything he has done.
David's passion is quality and safety. His wife Martha is a nurse at the Hershey Medical Center and his son is a Doctor in Bethlehem, PA. They are a family concerned with product safety, quality and also providing products at affordable prices. There are too many paint colors and brushes in the industry today, making painting very expensive, when it doesn't have to be.
David and Martha travel extensively, teaching an average of 200 days a year in over 14 different countries. In 2005, they started Jansen Studio Productions with their daughter Jessica. The studio produces educational DVD's and CD's in various languages for a wide variety of artists and subject matter, and their titles are currently being distributed in over 40 countries.