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David Blackburn
(1939 — 2016)

David Blackburn belongs to the English tradition of Blake and Palmer in that he has the miniaturist’s love of precision and concentration of focus and yet ranges from the particular to large and universal themes. The constants in his symbolic landscapes, which belong neither wholly to the world of nature nor wholly to what Thomas Hardy called ‘abstract imaginings’ are a superb sense of colour, an intense fascination with light and a love of geometric form combined with expressive line. Those who have followed the evolution of this major artist are aware of an increasing nobility of scale, as well as an enrichment of his chromatic range.
Prof. Jospeh Burke, University of Melbourne.

 

People ask: What is his work like? I don’t know any artist to whom I can compare him. He is not a landscape painter, not an abstractionist in the ordinary sense of the word. He is a painter of metamorphosis. You have to look at his work slowly; you have to look at it a long time. To my mind he is a very distinguished artist…a great artist who has not yet received sufficient recognition.
Lord Clark

 

 

Courtesy of the artist’s website.