Artist and Author by Karen Weston
David Weston is an artist whose work and reputation is recognised nationally with a professional career that spans over forty years.
Born in Leicester in 1935 he was educated at Alderman Newton’s School. His professional career as an artist commenced in 1969 following a successful exhibition at the British Transport Museum in London. From that point his career flourished and he has produced an extremely varied range of paintings in both oil and watercolour, although it is the latter medium which is his preference, for its complexities and its ability to portray atmospheric effects. The subject matter of his paintings is diverse but his love of the British landscape, its history, architecture and industrial past is a defining feature of his work. Coal mining, steel production and the railways have always been favourite subjects.
His series of 24 large canvases commissioned by industrialist Sir William McAlpine on the history of the British steam locomotive took three and a half years to produce and enjoyed a prestigious launch at London’s Royal Exchange in 1977 where it was shown on television and caught the eye of His Royal Highness Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh, who invited David and his patron to his study at Buckingham Palace for an informal chat about the paintings and the subject of industry and the arts.
Such acclaim led on to the paintings being shown over a three year period at many prestigious art galleries and museums including the Royal Scottish in Edinburgh, Glasgow City Transport Museum, The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, and many venues throughout the UK including Leicester’s City Art Gallery and the National Railway Museum in York where it was shown over a six month period.
Amongst some of the more notable commissions that David has received are the ones for whole series of paintings on a given theme: one for 40 canvases of England’s grand Country Houses, another for a set of 24 paintings on the history of the English Traction Engine.
A further set of paintings showed the story of the Rolls-Royce motor car and was shown country-wide following its launch at the Barbican in London and included a showing at the National Motor Museum in Hampshire.
The Museum also showed David’s series of commissioned paintings on the History of the British Motor Car which led on to the National Motor Museum commissioning the artist to produce a canvas on the story of 100 years of British Motoring. This painting was presented to HRH Prince Charles when he opened their special exhibition there on that theme.
David is the author of nine books about his paintings, the last three published by Halsgrove. These reflect all aspects of the artist’s work. ‘David Weston’s England’ portrays David’s love for the English landscape and its diverse architecture. This book, published in 2005, was a runaway success with a second imprint being produced within two months of publication!
‘David Weston, an Artist at Home and Abroad’, followed, concentrating on the artist’s work in Continental Europe, with his most recent, ‘Letting Off Steam’ appearing in 2009. This book showcases David’s railway and industrial paintings and in a foreword to the book Paul Atterbury, well known for his appearances on the BBC Antiques Road Show, has written of David’s work “He paints what he has seen, returning constantly for inspiration to the sketchbooks and drawings of his early life. As a result, decay and dereliction figure strongly in paintings whose inspiration is the end of an era in British industrial history. He lived through and drew the decline of railways, mining, iron production and heavy engineering. This sets his apart from many of his contemporaries working in this field who paint retrospectively to create highly coloured fantasy visions of an imaginary and idealised past. By contrast, his images of industrial dereliction and decay, shadowy components of a lost world, echo in their controlled and deliberately limited palette the romanticism of Piper in his paintings of bombed cities and shattered architecture.”
In 2009 David Weston celebrated his fortieth year as a professional artist. During that time he has been the subject of two television documentaries about his work including a 45 minute programme in 1984 by Central TV called ‘Beware of Trains’ which was transmitted as part of the series ‘England Their England’. His work has also been featured in countless other television programmes throughout the country.
2009 was also a year for David to celebrate his award from the University of Leicester where he received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters for his contribution to painting and fine art, something of which the artist is immensely proud.
In October of each year David opens up his private art gallery to the public for his annual one-man show. This attracts visitors and his many collectors from all over Britain. He considers himself lucky to have such a loyal and enthusiastic following with several collectors who have over fifty of his works in their individual collections.
The paintings on this website are changed only once a year, just a couple of days prior to the opening of David’s exhibition.
KAREN WESTON
