Artist's statement:
...we can never get at the nature of things from without. However much we may investigate, we obtain nothing but images and names.
Schopenhauer, the World as Will and Representation.
David Forster's intensely wrought landscape paintings refer to the traditions of the 18th and 19th centuries. Though the scenes depicted are topographically correct, light and colour are altered to create a fictionalised reality, that nonetheless conveys the authority of photo realist document.
By referring to older artistic traditions, the inheritance of narrative and emotional associations with landscape is evoked. However, at the core of the work is the idea of paradox, the contradictory, pairing of ideas. This notion is emphasised through the adjustments made by the artist to the scene.
Thus the work presents the industrialised wilderness of farmland, the well-trodden solitude of the British uplands, or the tame sublime of the country park. In this way the importance of a romantic narrative of landscape is explored, one that tenaciously survives the knowledge of a more prosaic reality.
David Forster is represented in Edinburgh by the Open Eye Gallery. Click here to see work for sale.
David Forster SSA RSW: CV
Solo Exhibitions
2023 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2020 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2018 The Rendez-Vous Gallery, Aberdeen
2018 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2016 The Rendez-Vous Gallery, Aberdeen
2016 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2015 East Kilbride Arts Centre Gallery
2014 Rebecca Hossack Gallery, Charlotte Street, London
2013 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2009 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2007 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2005 Merz Gallery, Edinburgh
2002 Cossachok Gallery, Glasgow
2002 The Collective Gallery, Project Room , Edinburgh
2001 The Reynolds Gallery, Edinburgh
2000 Institut Français d’Ecosse, Edinburgh
1999 Patriothall WASPS, Edinburgh
1997 Musée Jadis, Allevard-les-Bains, France
1997 Galerie le Bateau-Lavoir, Grenoble, France
1995 Galerie le Bateau-Lavoir, Grenoble, France
1994 Bibliothèque Municipale, Grenoble, France
Group Exhibitions
2024 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh: "Edinburgh Environs"
2024 Centre Camille Claudel "Coup de coeur du public" - Les Arts en Balade, Clermont-Ferrand
2020-24 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh: "On a Small Scale"
2020 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh: "Festival Spirit: Selected artists"
2019 Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, Edinburgh (RSW)
2019 Society of Scottish Artists, Edinburgh (SSA) and Visual Arts Scotland, Edinburgh (VAS)
2019 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh: "On a Small Scale"
2018 The Glasgow Art Club, Glasgow
2018 Fabriano In Acquarello, Fabriano, Italy
2018 Masters of Watercolour, Saint Petersburg Union of Artists, Russia
2018 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh: "On a Small Scale"
2018 Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, Edinburgh (RSW)
2018 Society of Scottish Artists, Edinburgh (SSA) and Visual Arts Scotland, Edinburgh (VAS)
2017 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh: "On a Small Scale"
2017 The Rendez-Vous Gallery, Aberdeen: "The Four Seasons"
2016 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh: "On a Small Scale"
2014 City Art Centre, Edinburgh: "Scottish Art: People, Places, Ideas"
2012 City Art Centre, Edinburgh: "Art and the Garden"
2011-2012 Visual Arts Scotland, Edinburgh (VAS)
2006-2016 Society of Scottish Artists, Edinburgh (SSA)
2009-2010 Lynn Painter-Stainer Exhbition, Painter's Hall, London
2009-2014 The Sunday Times watercolour competition, London
2004, 2009-2016 Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (RSA)
2006-2016 Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, Edinburgh (RSW)
2000,2009 Aberdeen Artists' Society, Aberdeen
2005 Lynn Painter-Stainer Exhibition, Painters Hall, London
2005 Singer and Friedlander/Sunday Times, Mall Galleries, London
2004 Royal Scottish Academy (RSA)
2003 Royal Society of Scottish Painters in Watercolour (RSW)
2001 Royal Society of Scottish Painters in Watercolour (RSW)
2000 ABC at Edinburgh College of Art
2000 Aberdeen Artist’s Society
2000 Society of Scottish Artists, Edinburgh
2000 ARC, London
1999 Compass Gallery, Glasgow
1998 Compass Gallery, Glasgow
1994 “Série Noire”, Galerie le Bateau-Lavoir, Grenoble, France
1993 Happening Gallery, Bristol
1992 Goldberg Art, Argyll Street, London
1991 “The Natural View”, Cutlers exchange, London
1991,1992 Singer and Friedlander exhibition, Mall galleries, London
1987-1992 Summer and Winter shows, St James’s Gallery, Bath
Awards
2018 The W.Gordon Smith and Mrs Jay Gordonsmith Award
2018 The Glasgow Art Club Prize
2017 The RSW Fabriano Award
2015 The Rendez-Vous Gallery Artist in Residence
2014 Ramsay Cornish Prize Society of Scottish Artists
2013 Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, 1st prize
2011 Russell Trust Award, Visual Arts Scotland
2005 Singer and Friedlander Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, 2nd prize
2003 Edinburgh Arts Club Award, Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour
2001 John Grey Award, Royal Scottish society of Painters in Watercolour
Principal Collections
Abbey National Building Society, Bath
Bath Dean and Chapter for George Carey
City Arts Centre, Edinburgh
Theatre Royal, Bath
Wheelabrator Headquarters, Allevard-les-Bains, France
Bibliography
The Scotsman, Art Reviews, Duncan Macmillan, 6 November 2020
The Scotsman, Art Reviews, Duncan Macmillan, 27 February 2018
Inspirations & Technical Breakthroughs: Secrets from the Contemporary International Watercolor Masters Volume IV, by Zhou Tianya & Huang Chaocheng [ISBN 978-5575-3182-9], September 2017
Pratique des Arts - hors-série acrylique, 27 October 2017
The Artist magazine, April 2014
Sunday Times, Culture magazine, 25 August 2013
The Scotsman, Critic’s choice, Duncan Macmillan, 28 February 2013
The Scotsman, Critic’s choice, Duncan Macmillan, 6 December 2012
Sunday Times, 04 September 2005
Edinburgh Evening News, 22 April 2004
Sunday Herald, Catriona Black, 25 April 2004
Preview, Art Review, Elizabeth Mahoney, Feb, March, 2002
Scotsman, Critic’s choice, Neil Cameron 16 October 2001
Frank Pavlov, Divers Cités, Supplément Culturel, March/April 1997
Les Affiches de Grenoble et du Dauphiné, April 1997
Le Dauphiné Libéré, April 1997
Le Dauphiné Libéré, July 1995