David Wood

Biography

*Check out my free painting demotrations on youtube, covering painting En Plein Air, Oil Painting, Watercolour and Sketching.* 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. However, for all the years I have been creating, I am starting to see that I am 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. At the end of the day, just looking at my work will tell to more than I can put into words. 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 (1990). Following this I went on to study Illustration and Anglia Ruskin University (1997). My initial pursuit to become an artist has been a constant and renewed energy that spurs 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, skills that give a good painting representative art. These, core, skills are draughtsmanship, colour theory, design and critical observation. Currently, I teach two courses at Hills Road College, Cambridge. I enjoy painting in the studio as much as painting En Plein Air. -Awards- 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; Broughton House Gallery, Cambridge; The Old Fire Engine House, Ely; Williams Art, Cambridge and the Discerning Eye, London.