David Armstrong is primarily a watercolorist, although he also works in oil, tempera and casein.  His watercolors capture qualities traditionally associated with oils:  intense realism, tonality and luminosity.  He paints landscapes and portraits, notably the American Craftsman Series begun in 1976.  Armstrong excels in portraying the various moods and seasons of nature through intense observation of atmosphere and quality of light.  Through precise rendering of detail, he continues the tradition of American romantic landscape painters like Cole, Bierstadt, Church and Homer.  The influence of Andrew Wyeth and the Brandywine River School is also apparent in his earlier works, where composition and presentation echo the disquieting and lonely imagery of Wyeth's realism.

Born January 29, 1947, in Kent, Connecticut, Armstrong grew up on his father's sheep farm.  This idyllic setting greatly influenced his career as an artist.  He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting in Maine in 1966 and went on to earn a B.A. from Bucknell University in 1969 and an M.F.A. from Indiana University at Bloomington, Indiana, in 1971