Jean David

For Jean David, the world is a village. Born in Scotland in 1956, a citizen of Australia, the country where he studied painting (in Sydney), he is a holder of a British passport and lives in France, where he has exhibited time and again, notably at the prestigious Autumn Show. A fulltime artist since 1996, he teaches both classes and workshops. He also travels throughout Europe and Asia, and is represented in many private collections (China, USA).

If his work draws on diverse techniques, oil painting still remains his tool of choice. “That’s where I feel most comfortable,” confides the artist. “Over the years, I have become familiar with this technique and I find it provides a range of extraordinary effects, whether that’s with a paintbrush, a knife, with cloths and even with the fingers.”

The starting point of his work comes invariably from the nature of doing portraits, drawing flowers or undertaking a bright landscape. “Everything that unfolds on my pallet comes from what I have in front of me. After that, I can choose a variety of different processes to produce a work.” His paintings, although figurative, tend now and then towards the abstract: “When I paint something I have to respect the entirety of the form and I do not think I can improve it. For landscapes, I sometimes move from realism to abstraction.” This creation develops in the open before being reworked in the studio. And it’s always the emotion which prevails…