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Many of David Marl's paintings show a figure obviously on a journey.
The Christmas 2000 Show at The Slade Centre borrowed David's
'Man in a Scarf' figure as its event logo, but there are other frequent travellers in his work.
David grew up in South London, and trained as a stained glass artist at Kingston and the Royal College, but never really practised his art, feeling the pressure to take the safer option of teaching.
During a long teaching career, though, he always drew and wrote. One of the two fantasy novels he co-authored with David Arscott - "The Frozen City" -
(published in 1985) was a big hit in Japan. Prince Max is a character
from an unpublished childrens book.
The painting, in acrylics and watercolour, only started seriously around ten years ago. Acrylics are more relaxing,David says, watercolour more demanding. 'Acrylics feel like good solid meals, watercolour is the salad - it rinses the brain'.
David's own journey has a strong spiritual element to it, and for the last 3 years he has been studying and training for his ordination. That Christian symbolism has found its way into his recent work - particularly the stunningly beautiful 'gold' series exhibited for the first time in this exhibition, is unsurprising. But Christian subjects have featured in his work for some time, often in quirky ways as in 'Annunciation with Passing Cyclist'.
Artists that have influenced David include Frances Towne, the 19th century contemporary of Blake and Turner; Eric Ravilious and Stanley Spencer. The man in the scarf always reminds us of the aviator in Rupert
Bear. But then he was on a journey too.
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