David King Sea Pictures
1– 25 November 2017
Sea Pictures “The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore”. Vincent van Gogh David King has been painting the sea for more than half a century. Since childhood, the beach has been his safe haven and, like most humans on the planet, he is inspired by the ocean — listening to it, smelling it on the breeze, walking next to it, painting it, surfing or swimming in it, photographing it, and creating lasting memories along its edge. He has studied the patterns and colours of the waves and the tides as intensely as any fisherman or oceanographer. Of the hundreds of images of the sea he has produced, he can remember without prompting every location, the exact time of day and the prevailing weather conditions related to each and every scene. Up until this exhibition, his practice has been quite solitary, usually working on several canvasses at a time, and selling by commission. There have been occasional forays into figurative or abstract works, but in recent years the painting has been distilled down to these lovely ‘Sea Pictures’, appearing one after the other. The title of the exhibition is not meant to be prosaic. It references Edward Elgar’s famous song cycle, an extraordinary suite of poems put to music and first performed in 1899. This music has profound personal significance for the artist, related to a lifetime of joy and loss and everlasting love. It is music that ‘seeks and finds … the rolling worlds of wave and shell’, an intention that is repeated in every brushstroke on every painting. Lynne Seear
Late Afternoon, The Point, Burleigh (2016) oil on canvas 91 x 76 cm $1,800
Storm Receding, Burleigh (2017) oil on canvas 76 x 61 cm $880
Burleigh (2016) oil on canvas 76 x 91 cm $990
Afternoon, New Brighton (2016) oil on canvas 61 x 61 cm $770
Broadbeach (2012-16) oil on canvas 40.5 x 50.5 cm $550
Storm Receding, Rainbow Bay (2016) oil on canvas 51 x 51 cm $660
Sunset, Rainbow Bay (2016) oil on canvas 61 x 76 cm $880
Cliff Face (2016) oil on canvas 110 x 152 cm $2,900
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