Dale Laitinen has been painting for over forty years with thirty five of those in watercolor. He is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society, and Watercolor West. He is a graduate of Modesto Junior College and San Jose State University with a BA in Art with a painting concentration. He is a past juror of many National and regional exhibitions including Watercolor West, Kentucky Watercolor Society, Utah Watercolor Society, Watercolor Society of Oregon, Red River Watermedia Show, Magnum Opus and many others. Some of the periodicals he has been featured in, The Artist’s Magazine, Watercolor Magic, Watercolor Magazine, and Drawingboard Magazine.
A native of northern Minnesota, Dale has lived, moved, and traveled across the American West and this figures prominently in his work. After college Dale spent eight years as an independent trucker hauling freight across country. In 1985 he turned to painting full-time.
One of the signatures of a Laitinen painting is the long view with the natural forms of the topography being foremost. His works extend to the interaction between structures such as roads, dams, canals, powerhouses, and the natural landscape. In one of these paintings one might find a concrete dam that spans a river canyon, or a highway that cuts through desert sandstone, or a shadow of a bridge that crawls slowly across a red rock wall.
