About David
Currently, I spend 70% of my time painting (in the Studio and En Plein Air), 20% working at the Cambridge School of Art and 10% teaching representational painting and drawing.
Beginning from a young age, in Liverpool, I was influenced by art; specifically painting and drawing. My farther worked in the Walker Art Gallery, as an attendant, he was also an amateur artist; whilst my mother was very creative with design and textiles. I remember visiting the Walker Art Gallery and was probably inspired by the Victorian art. At the age of sixteen I recieved my first set of paints, acrylics, and I was hooked. After gaining the top grade in GCSE Art, I was single-minded in pursuing my artistic dreams, against parental wishes, and went on to study Graphic Design in Southport (1988). Following this I went on to study Illustration at Anglia Ruskin University, this culminated in achieving a degree in Illustration (1997).
My initial pursuit to become an artist has been a constant and renewed energy which conitinues to spur me on, now not so much adolescent rebellion, but a more mature determination to use the talent I possess, to create new ideas, communicate a different way of looking and to visually respond to the life and world around me.
I value the traditional skills that were once taken for granted, but sadly very rarely taught at art schools. These, core, skills are draughtsmanship, colour theory, design and critical observation.
Currently, I teach part-time at Hills Road College, Cambridge, workshops and private online tuition. I enjoy painting in the studio as much as painting En Plein Air.
About my Art
My paintings bring together all that I have learnt through studying draughtsmanship, design, colour theory and mark making, in the thirty plus years I have been painting. Works are either in Oil, Watercolour or graphite. When an artist begins their career, they are generally not sure what it is, really, that inspires them and this can be an ongoing search. Now, my focus is very much interested in capturing single moments in time, either of a particular time of day, atmosphere or a figure in activity. Regular themes include Rowers on the River Cam, the circus, landscapes and other figurative motifs. The qualities of light can also be a supplemental theme in the paintings, a grey day can be just as inspiring as a sunny one, nocturnal as beautiful as day, to me. Painting "En Plein Air", in the open air, is very much a part of my art practise now, responding directly to the subject, in the elements, creates a stronger connection between the subject and the art.
Awards
Award Winner Watercolour Category
Paint Out Cambridge May 2019
Winner of the Civil and Public Service Artists Tom Money Medal for “Most Innovative Artist”, presented at the exhibition in the Banqueting House, London. 2007
Previous Exhibitions include
The New English Art Club, London, Discerning Eye, London, Broughton House Gallery, Cambridge; The Old Fire Engine House, Ely; Williams Art, Cambridge, The Apex, Bury St Edmunds, Babylon Gallery, Ely.
