Born in Birmingham in 1950, David Eustace was encouraged by his school art teacher to follow an artistic career but financial constraints forced him to take up a carpentry apprenticeship. It was only some years later, when he was twenty-one, that he was able to return to education. He completed a Foundation course at Sutton Coldfield Art College, followed by a degree course in Fine Art at Exeter College of Art. David 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. Since returning to the UK in 1986 David has earned his living as a painter and musician - for 25 years he was the drummer in the blues band ‘Junkyard Angels’. He now plays in a jazz quartet called ‘Shufflebones’.
David plays with the viewers of his figurative painting, using images that hover between conscious and subconscious states. Eustace produces a mixture of wit and mysticism. In his view, painting is like music. Often the artist or composer intends to form a beginning, middle and an end but finds himself drawn off in a slightly different direction to make his creation look or sound ‘right’. It is, he says, a philosophical experience, which is “easier felt than telt.”
David Eustace says: “It was only when I stopped working from life that my paintings became my own. For me imagination is the touch stone to explore an inner world of feelings and dreams”.
Over the years David has developed a number of themes which he gravitates towards in a fairly random fashion. Eustace finds if he stays with one theme too long his interest wanes.
David 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. Painting with acrylic on board David overlays this with a light oil glaze to enhance depth and colours.
David Eustace was awarded membership of the Royal Society of British Artists in 2003 and in the same year was the winner of the RBA David Wolfers Memorial Prize.
In addition to Red Rag British Art Gallery David Eustace art work has been exhibited at other leading British Art Galleries. Each painting at Red Rag is sourced from the David Eustace artist studio and like all Red Rag British art and Contemporary art it can be shipped worldwide.
