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David Kirk’s paintings are passionate examples of contemporary Australian Expressionism. They are boldly composed and vigorously painted, causing a strong and long-lasting impact.
David Kirk's exhibition, at Butchers Hook Gallery, Paddington, Sydney 2013, 'Tequila Sunrise Bay of Fires Series 2013. Acrylic on Canvas. Next show is Feb March 2015 butchers hook art gallery paddington
email: butchershookartgallery@gmail.com
The Black Lion was David’s third exhibition at The Washhouse Gallery following his previous exhibitions Bay Of Fires in 2009 and Red in Tooth and Claw in 2007 .
David Kirk moved to the Central Coast while his Leichhardt house was undergoing renovations. He spent over nine months living in Umina Beach and was continually inspired by the coastal landscape, especially the views from the beach of Lion Island, situated in the mouth of the Hawkesbury, just off Barrenjoey Head.
“I’d find myself watching the island and the headlands of Broken Bay while walking my dogs along the beach. The play of light and shade and the way the landscape seemed to change depending on the time of day was quite extraordinary. Lion Island, became in my mind, ‘The Black Lion’ and Mt Ettalong ‘The Buffalo’ - I would note the colour combinations and light and the feel of what was going on and what the bay was looking like and then paint the paintings with what the Chinese painters call ‘great verve’: no pissing about!”
The Eastern notion of the ‘Artists Inner Verve’ was something Kirky rediscovered during a trip to Beijing in early 2010. “I visited a Calligraphy studio in Beijing and had a long session with the guys there, some younger painters and the old master who ran the studio. I took away with me a notion that to paint fluently you have to really back yourself, just know what you want to do and do it, be pure of thought with your brush and let the your energy flow with the paint. No over-painting like an old Westerner!”
Kirk’s paintings have developed more along the lines of depicting landscape in paintings of a spiritual essence. The new paintings are like visual poems depicting a spiritual experience and the interaction of mind and the natural world that is distilled and transferred from mind to mind by the visual experience. They are painted with an immediacy and freshness, they deliver beauty and angst and a sense of not only what is seen but also what may be there just under the surface.
Bay of Fires
The forms and colours of the paintings are derived from nature, and combine the landscape’s elements of light, colour and natural space with forms, line and vigour sourced directly from the artist’s observations during a visit to Tasmania early in 2008 which included a five-day hike along the magnificent Bay of Fires situated on the north-eastern point of Tasmania.
“I was so affected by the Bay of Fires- it is so heavenly and serene, it was like walking across the sky. This fantastic natural aesthetic experience set the mood and style of these paintings.”
This artistic experience was so positive that Kirk has adapted the same method and ease of style to works set around other coastal areas, Byron Bay, Suffolk Park and Merimbula, which has produced paintings inspired by dusk and moonlight. These paintings provide a vibrant contrast to the Bay of Fires paintings which all float with the shimmer of daylight: morning, noon and afternoon.
David Kirk lives in Sydney at Leichhardt and paints in his studio at the rear of his house, which is an old Millinery, built in 1908. Bay of Fires was Kirk’s second exhibition at The Washhouse Gallery and followed his 2007 exhibition ‘Red in Tooth and Claw’. He has chosen to exhibit at The Washhouse Gallery as it is an excellent venue which will enable exposure of his work and open a dialogue with the local art community. He would like to be known as an artist of the inner west.