About Jean David

Although I do also work with diverse media, the majority of my work is in oil paint, and this is where I feel most at home.  Over the years, I have become familiar with what is possible with this medium, and I still find that it provides an almost staggering range of effects that can be achieved in its application, eg using brushes, knives, rags, fingers etc.

The starting point for all of my work invariably comes from nature. Whether the subject matter is a portrait, a figure, flowers or a landscape, all that evolves must come from what is before me. After that, I can, and do, choose a variety of processes to produce the painting. 

When painting portraits and figures, I feel compelled to stay with the integrity of the form, as I don’t feel that I could improve upon it. My interpretation of the landscape vacillates from realism moving towards abstraction. The pictures are mostly done plein air, and then often reworked in the studio. I am more concerned with getting the feel of the experience than with representational or photographic correctness. Therefore, the main pictorial elements I use are drawing, coloor and tone applied with a variety of paint application.