Artist from France
David W. Whitfield was born in the N. East of England where after leaving school attended Sunderland College of Art whereafter worked in land surveying to maintain financial independence and freedom of artistic expression. Exhibitions were few but supplemented by book illustrations for Heron Publishing Company. A move from surveying into nurse practice (State Registered, psychiatry) for many years gaining an insight into many different behaviour able traits, eventually he took early retirement and moved permanently to live in France where he still now resides painting full time and into a later venture of writing, publishing poetry, short stories and novels.
Many paintings have now been exhibited in most European countries, England, France, Austria, Switzerland, Germany and Italy including USA and India as well as works being published in books and periodicals.Art is a visual attempt to come to terms with the world, to make sense of it, an aesthetic philosophy. An exploration and a journey of materials, aesthetic principles and the subject matter of the work itself. A painting requires three components to bring it to life, the work itself, the artist and the viewer. The relationship between the artist and the painting is of an intense private emotional journey of exploration and commitment to the ongoing work. However once finished it lies waiting to be brought into the world to be presented to the viewer only then can it assume an identity which may fulfill its potential. The judgement rests upon those who interpret the image set before them, labelling of such work surely restrict any interrelation from an open unbiased point fo view and limit its full potential.
To entitle or burden it with a meaning shrivels the work, to devoid not only it, but that of the viewer, a chance of a more expanded interpretation beyond that of a title or single meaning.
More about David W. Whitfield: davidwwhitfield.com
INTERVIEW with David W. Whitfield
Carmela Loiacono talks with David W. Whitfield who takes part with his four watercolour paintings in the International Art Exhibition STORIES OF IDENTITY – From hidden places to daily life in Matera, at cultural hypogeum Lega Navale Italiana Matera-Magna Grecia.
Carmela Loiacono – Please introduce yourself and talk about the selected works you presented during the exhibition STORIES OF IDENTITY – From hidden places to daily life.
David W. Whitfield – Born in the steel town of Consett in the N. E. England, attended Sunderland College of Art (as it was ten know) after leaving school, to gain independence worked first as a cartographer, land surveyor and finally as a qualified psychiatric nurse/manager.
Lived mostly in Manchester with periods of work in the Middle East and various countries in Africa as a land surveyor. Finally took early retirement form nursing to live full time and remain in S. West France.
Exhibited art work in Sunderland, Manchester and London, with some illustrations for the book publisher Heron, before the move to France, then to exhibit more wildly in Europe, particularly in Italy, including Germany, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, as well as India and USA.
Carmela Loiacono – How would you describe your creative process? What or who influenced or is influencing your work?
David W. Whitfield – The works shown in STORIES OF IDENTITY are one of intimacy obviously of a sexual nature the most intense and personal interaction and through this engagement may be revealed a true identity sometimes a surprising one to the partner and oneself when passion strips inhibition and the subconscious takes control, in spite of oneself!
Water colour in this instant is the ideal medium possessing an immediacy and freshness to do justice to subject matter itself which relies on immediate instinctive ness for it to succeed as in the act of painting.
Given subject may help to commence a work but from then on in it is purely instinctive in the construction design and composition, which is especially true when faced with the horror oh a blank canvas…
Where to begin and with what…!
After the rift few marks and with a vague notion, then the journey of exploration begins, constant staring at the canvas until a hint of an idea, more marks and a slow progression toward some final solution, the process being g of partnership with the work, to force a path against the instinctive one presented by the canvas usually ends in disaster or a poor finalisation.
No meaning no ideal, only marks on a canvas mostly recognisable but the interpretation may be as diverse as every individual as through their own experience of life.
Carmela Loiacono – What do you think about shared art on social media? Could it be an alternative way of communicating contemporary art?
David W. Whitfield – Influences are as varied as your personal experience of life, initially from other artists, which may be a constant thread, but often from your own ideas of life, mostly philosophical, and through conversation with many people which enriches ideas and a viewpoint which eventually is channeled back into your work, either consciously or otherwise.
Any means to show and share work is fine as long it is not used for propaganda means, the more people are enabled to view art outside of a gallery cannot be a bad thing.
Carmela Loiacono – What are your future goals and/or projects?
David W. Whitfield – I have little regard for commercial or financial success to create something and be acknowledged for possessing some merit is enough, but I am my most severest critic and never satisfied. To have a work in a private or public institution would be nice, to have passed by and not be in vain, to be acknowledged would be enough.
