ARTIST’S STATEMENT
David says of himself: “I am a painter. I also produce a great many drawings (mainly of the figure and ‘heads’) from which I work. These drawings are from ‘life’ though many are ‘experimental’ variations. I am a studio painter. I am also very much a ‘process painter’ in that I have a starting point and set a ‘process’ in motion and see where it will take me. Often, my paintings will diverge from original intentions. Almost all of the work I do is an evolution from what went before. I tend to work in series. All of my larger paintings are oil on canvas. ‘Mark making’ also features heavily in my process. At the present time, predominant sizes are 90cm square or 60cm sq. I do smaller paintings on panels. Drawings are usually A3 and are generally ‘mixed media’. Currently, black watercolour (undiluted) predominates. David is a member of The Newlyn Society of Artists (NSA), an ‘Associate’ of The Penwith Society of Artists and a Member of Penzance Studios.
I am very aware that there is content to what I do and that all the above (and much more) is simply a means of facilitating the emergence of this content. Over the last few years, the principle subject of my work has been the figure and ‘heads’. I see the process I engage in (which in itself continues to evolve) as a means of ‘conjuring up’ a ‘sense of the ‘real’. This for me entails bringing into being a sense of the transient, ‘half-seen’, ambiguous nature of reality and experience; an ‘instant in time’ made ‘concrete’ and credible. I seek a credible imperfection.
We live in a world of doubt and contradictions where certainty lacks credibility.
Why this fascination with the transient should be important to me is a bit of a mystery. However, I do find beauty in the transient and the fleeting made tangible. I find such imagery relates strongly to the nature of perception and how I see things (both literally and philosophically). I believe in the ‘maxim; ‘There is no truth, only perception’.
I don’t see myself as a portraitist or as a ‘life’ painter. Rather, I see myself as an artist who attempts to portray and express the seemingly meaningful sensation of occupying and moving within our physical bodies and how that pertains to my perception of humanity”.
