David Brian Smith’s figurative work is rooted in the pictorial tradition of landscape and portrait painting. The artist uses his family history and finds images as springboards. His works depict a dreamlike world in a rich color scheme and allude to a rural environment, to folklore and to myths. Painted on herringbone linen, the rough texture of the canvas is reminiscent of traditional fabrics that inhabitants of the British countryside (where the artist hails from) used to wear. His compositions are created through a slow and time-consuming process with successive touches of oil paint. Sometimes he inserts silver or gold leaf here and there. His paintings envelop us in a meditative, even spiritual atmosphere. His references include Henri Rousseau, the gold leaf paintings of Gustav Klimt, Samuel Palmer and the British surrealist painters Paul Nash and Graham Sutherland. Born in 1981 in Wolverhampton, United Kingdom, David Brian Smith currently lives and works in London.

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