David Brian Smith

“I come from a farming background, in Shropshire, where my father was a shepherd,” David Brian Smith explains. “My mother found the picture of the Shepherd tending his flock in a newspaper from the 1930s. I’ve made several paintings from this image and have enjoyed using the subject of the shepherd because of my autobiographical relationship with it. I use the image to jump between different styles of painting and arrive at new ones. At first I was concerned about repeating the use of the shepherd, but there are so many possible variations of the image that I can explore. Each time I can reinvent the space, light and palette within the picture. I paint on herringbone linen because of its association to rural heritage, to flat caps and tweed jackets. I work on one canvas at a time, and this allows me to delve into and create a world around me. The life-sized scale is important, it makes me feel like part of the scene I’m painting, I hope the viewer has a similar experience.”