David, my friend the artist
By Birgitte Sheard
A little while ago David called me and asked me to come and talk to him about his funeral arrangements. I got upset but he laughed and said ‘I’m not going to pop my clogs yet, love. I just want to put my affairs in order.’ He said ‘I have just ordered a brand new car and I have orthopaedic inserts arriving for the flattest feet Britain has ever seen.’
He told me his funeral wishes were in a brown briefcase in Nick’s room – but dearest David they were not there. I hope you are sitting on a cloud now with your beloved Nick – looking down and seeing how many people here loved and appreciated you.
David was born gifted and after a traumatic childhood and being outcast from his family church for being gay, he became an agnostic.
David was so gentle, caring, wise, cultured and funny. He used to mimic people looking at his abstract art saying ‘Eh Harold, I like that one – I can see a cow’s face in that.’ If Nick heard anyone saying anything derogatory about David’s work, he would walk past them and mutter ‘phillistines.’
I first met David in 1985 and my life was transformed by these two dashing chaps, Nick and David arriving in our village. We had fun, laughter and wonderful lunchtime discussions on our farm. David danced on the lawn to the Pet Shop Boys and I helped him make a studio in the farm buildings. This is where he painted the amazing East Ings series.
He interpreted the Yorkshire countryside portraying the earth and atmospheric conditions not in a traditional way, but in variable explosions of colour, shape, stripes and lines. Sometimes the memories of the natural world would make painterly shapes reminiscent of fields, cloud formations and distant horizons. David wanted us to enjoy his paintings like you would a symphony – or a piano concerto, or sometimes a full orchestral concert! Allow the eye to enjoy the harmony of colour. And in his tonal variations enjoy the lyrical qualities – let them envelope us. He used colour to emit our emotional state – ‘joie de vivre’ or subtler moods.
David rarely made statements about his work. He said the paintings have a kinship with a drama peopled by shapes of colour with individual character, be they large or small, in line or solid form, glossy or flat, translucent or opaque, textured or mirror-like! Sometimes the shapes exist singularly, free within their own space, interlocking, sometimes travelling over the boundaries of the outer frame. The paintings have emerged into life from memories, observations, feelings and emotions – a distillation of life’s experiences, both visual and metaphysical rendered in paint. The rhythms – the quickness and stillness that characterise the human condition.
David suffered bouts of clinical depression and had periods of being unable to work. But he always returned to his painting and created new and exciting work. He never stagnated and experimented with a wide variety of media – coach enamel, household paint, gouache, watercolour, oils and acrylics. He always worked from a premise of order in space – each piece meticulously controlled – no daubing, or splashing.
David sadly died of pneumonia before his latest exciting work has been exhibited. But we will try to fulfil his wishes and get this amazing new work shown.
He has given the world an incredible gift with his colourful art. David’s three main loves, (not sure which order they come in!), but art, Nick and Maria Callas live on in our memories.
June, 2024