About

‘My focus is on the relationship between environment/landscape and the act of painting. My practice is a personal metaphor for my experiences, memories and encounters which all translate into paintings informed by the landscape.

It is this world first observed, and subsequently re-imagined that is what interests me with respect to my studio practice. The world that I am immersed in as a painter of the Australian landscape is defined by not only the importance of place to my personal narrative but also the connections through places that exist through memory and my family.

It is also significant as an environment where I have found solitude and a sense of belonging. It is the space from which I have subsequently drawn inspiration for self-expression through mark-making/painting.

DU

David Usher is a Brisbane born Toowoomba based artist undertaking a Doctorate at the University of Southern Queensland - his area of research is ‘the Spook’.

David explains, ‘the Spook occurs in an artwork through the culmination of a series of elements - of the application of composition, colour and light... The artist develops an intuitive awareness or knowledge about their arts practice to gain a sense of the overall feeling of the work in front of them, to ascertain whether the composition, or ‘feel’ of the work has reached the moment when it has a kind of magic about it.’ David’s work captures the essence, or emotion within a landscape, and in doing so, embodies the feeling or experience of the Spook.

There is a wealth of theoretical research David has engaged with, he has recently co-authored an essay titled ‘Notions of the Spook and the Role of the Studio: Considerations of Space and the Sensory Experiences of Producing Art’.

The thing that is special about this research is that it is a theoretical discussion of something that is felt. The instinctive landscapes are a direct translation of David’s physical experience in a landscape, his experience is captured and transferred to be read as the Spook in his paintings/ceramics.

David has shown with several galleries including Doggart and ALG, and has work in collections including Queensland Art Gallery, Artbank, Brisbane City Hall Gallery and Queensland Potters Association.

Representation / Alexandra Lawson Gallery