David Eustace RSBA RBA

David Eustace was born in 1950. When he was 21, he returned to education. He completed a Foundation course at Sutton Coldfield Art College & a degree course in Fine Art at Exeter College of Art. He later went on to Leicester Polytechnic in 1976 and trained as a teacher.

After graduating, David spent six years in the USA working as a muralist. He returned to the UK in 1986 and earned his living as a painter and musician – for 25 years he was the drummer in the blues band “Junkyard Angels”.

David plays with the viewers of his figurative painting, using images that hover between conscious and subconscious states. Eustace mixes wit and mysticism. Eustace observes the everyday world around him but presents it with an individual style and viewpoint. Subjects are sometimes dislocated from their surroundings or hover lending an air of mystery. There is a three-dimensional dream-like quality to his contemporary art. To speed up the process of putting his ideas down onto canvas, he uses acrylic first to work out and change his composition. Acrylic dries very quickly and allows alterations to be made instantly. Once David is happy with the layout, he over paints in oil using brushes, palette knife and kitchen scourers, which gives a soft finish to painted strokes. The result is that his paintings are quite theatrical.

David has had several one-man exhibitions in London and the West Country. He has also exhibited in mixed shows in London; Birmingham; Bath; Massachusetts, U.S.A.; Toronto, Canada; Devon; Plymouth and at the Mall Galleries, where he won the David Wolfers Memorial Price, the Royal Academy Summer Show and the South West Academy.

“ It was only when I stopped working from life that my painting became my own. For me imagination is the touchstone to explore an inner world of fooling’s and dreams”.