“A ROMANTIC SURREALIST.” Richard Cork, Art Critic.
“All my work is concerned with sea and landscapes. I am fascinated by the marks that painters and those that humans make when they work the land. The spirits of artists and land workers past and present shape my view. I work in a large scale in watercolour, oils and tempera; I use tradition as my touchstone and modernism as my flight.”
David Firmstone's paintings are out of the ordinary too – deliberately so. He says that you have to make them personal so he’s started putting incidents in them usually involving a figure or animals that adds to a surreal quality to the landscapes.
He recently had a one-man exhibition in Fabriano, Italy, the result of winning a competition staged by the world’s most prestigious watercolour paper producer, in a museum dedicated to equally prestigious artists.
Technique is critical to David’s aesthetic. He constantly searches for new ways to make paintings and can never quite remember his previous approach – so each painting is an act of learning to paint again.
David is based at his private studio in St Lawrence, near Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.
Visiting Divd Firmstone is by appointment, or invitation only.
