Concord artist David Wiggins is regionally known for his folk murals, but these days what he paints is so much more personal.

“You’d get big money for the murals because you’re doing what somebody else wants, but when you do your own work and sell that – that’s much more complimentary,” Wiggins said. “My way of approaching painting is from the point of expressionists. It’s more about feeling and finding the painting from within yourself than illustrating something that’s outside.”

This week, Wiggins presents some of his new work in a show, “David’s Path,” with its opening reception tonight, Wednesday, Sept. 7, from 6 to 10 p.m., inside his Pleasant St. studio, located above Pitchfork Records.

In anticipation of the opening, Wiggins has cleared his space and decorated it with tapestries and all the paintings he’s done since retiring from mural work. Some have already seen galleries in New York and Nantucket, while others are brand-new, months old and yet-to-be-named. They represent his journey as an artist and illustrate the stories and experiences that made him who he is today.

Wiggins, who grew up in Sanbornton, says he always painted but never fit in at school, disliking the regimentation and regularly getting into trouble. At age 17, he moved across the country (sometimes via hitchhiking) and began work as a commercial and decorative painter, creating and restoring signs and murals on commission.

His father, an antiques dealer and recreational painter, was a great influence and always encouraged his son’s art. It’s in part due to him that Wiggins got involved in the home decor business, renovating and reselling old houses and helping people decorate them with antiques, paintings, and, of course, his trademark murals.

Much of the mural work Wiggins is known for was done in a limited palette – few colors – because that’s what best suited the traditional New England homes he helped decorate. These days there’s more freedom to his art. There are figurative elements to it, sure, but it’s mostly expressionistic, rich with texture and color. Often, he has to remind himself that this is the strength of his art, not a weakness.

“I’ll have an initial inspiration, an initial contact within a painting – I like to use that word contact because that’s what happens. And then I look at it and say, well, nobody’s going to understand this. I’ve got to put a boat in it! Or, I’ve got to do this or that for somebody to buy it, and then I screw it up,” he said. “Sometimes you can bring them to a second level. … but my strength is in the spontaneity.”

Every day, Wiggins tries to paint, often on the ground or tabletop with big tarps all around. He favors oils but dabbles with watercolors and acrylics, frequently texturing his canvases with non-traditional materials like tar, sand, cardboard or marble dust. Sometimes he’ll use a brush, and sometimes he’ll just throw paint at the canvas like Jackson Pollock.

Many of his paintings are of real places – for example, “Piraeus” depicts the port outside Athens – while others have a mystical quality, like “Night Crossing,” an abstract piece that resembles a storybook night sky, textured with oranges, purples and yellows against a mauve backdrop.

Another painting was inspired by a line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and illustrates an ancient city, created with a watercolor wash atop a canvas coated with tar and corrugated cardboard. It’s one of Wiggins’s favorites. “I refused to sell it a couple times because I wanted to keep looking at it,” he said.

During his in-studio interview, Wiggins was joined by his friend, Joy Cadarette, who Wiggins says has been an enormous supporter. They’re old family friends but recently reconnected. Cadarette has sold some of Wiggins’s art in her shop, Antiques & Estates at 208, and helped him organize the show itself.

“You know what I love about David’s paintings? The more you look at them, the more you see. There’s something different every time,” Cadarette said.

Wiggins loves talking about art and art history and hearing what people have to say about his work because it allows him to look at it objectively. At age 80, he says he feels lucky to be able to continue to create this kind of art in particular.

“This stuff – my ego’s not in it. I feel it’s more like a holy thing,” Wiggins said.

“David’s Path” is on view in Wiggins’s studio, 3 Pleasant St., Concord, just above Pitchfork Records & Studio. The opening reception is Wednesday, Sept. 7, from 6 to 10 p.m., and will stay on view through Sunday, Sept. 11, by appointment, 802-272-7570.

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