Like the impressionists before him to which most of his work is related, David Cain is absorbed by the way light at different times of the day transforms the landscapes. As an artist, he is reoccupied purely by what the eye sees.

Some of his pieces are reminiscent of Monet, who was absorbed late in his career by a series of water lilly paintings. Those studies were essentially studies of reflections upon water, significant in that they presaged much of contemporary painting.

Again, not unlike most impressionist, Cain mostly uses a brush thick with pigment, while his other pieces have a more grainy approach. Cain uses the brush in a very sure and painterly way. He is not afraid of leaving his mark upon the canvas. This lends a vitality and marvelous spontaneity to his work.

The artist's figure studies and still life are genre pieces, unselfconscious studies of themes casually absorbed (such works stem from a long tradition which first appeared in the Flemish Masters).

Many of those canvasses are stark and lonely. They will evoke personal memories to each observer. They are best observed by exploring the cross-currents of recollections they evoke. In Cain's art, nature does not demand that you look; it does not command you; it invites you with a velvety voice.