Meet David Leach
FOUNDATION
David’s painting, untempered by formal instruction, remains raw and immediate—an art
brut shaped by instinct rather than tradition. Winning early acclaim yet sidestepping
convention, he has developed a complex, sometimes abstruse vision that is fiercely
individual and unapologetically authentic.
In his thirties, David moved eastward to Asia, where his work began to show a complexity
reflecting the time he was spending living in other cultures. Yet, unlike many Western artists drawn to Asia, he sidesteps the exoticism trap. Instead, his canvases reflect something subtler and more personal. There’s a curious abstraction in his recent work, as if he’s more interested in capturing the psychological imprint of a place as opposed to its postcard image.
It wasn’t until his fiftieth year that David’s practice became his primary vocation, a transition he speaks of less as a conscious choice and more as a necessity. His paintings, however, do not bear the polish of someone painting for effect. What you see is what you get—a body of work formed by a restless, searching soul whose only allegiance is to the canvas in front of him.
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INFLUENCES
David has always been as captivated by the lives of artists as by their work—a fascination that runs especially deep with the enigmatic figure of Ian Fairweather.
Fairweather, the quintessential outsider, led a restless, itinerant life, keeping a wary distance from the trappings of worldly success. He was a man driven not by ambition but by an elemental urge to create.
Fairweather’s years as a castaway on Bribie Island are mythic. There, isolated and unencumbered, he painted on whatever materials the sea tossed his way leaving his gallerists scrambling to salvage his fragile works.
Fairweather wasn’t necessarily creating for eternity; he painted because he had to, and
his life stands as a vivid reminder that greatart often springs from a dogged resistance to
convention.