Born in San Francisco, Dave’s family made a move to Santa Barbara six years later, establishing a life long love for the Central Coast. The genesis of Dave’s love of art began about age nine as he attempted to copy the Tarzan images of Burne Hogarth. When he had finally mastered the illusion of three dimensions through shading and values, a whole new world opened for him.

A brief career in jewelry design and a friendship with a design director eventually lead to evening art classes with Alice Randolph who introduced him to oils. Then an eight-year contribution in the commercial art field developed the path to fine art becoming his ultimate career of more than 30 years.

Dave DeMatteo has won numerous awards for both his paintings and drawings. He has been collected nationally and internationally, with many corporate commissions and purchases for museum collections. Kudos includes being published by Colliers, as well as having his images grace many magazine covers. In May 1993, DeMatteo was a Profile feature in Southwest Art.