David Mc Nish!

Tall, height accentuated by an upwardly mobile afro, affable Danish/Trinidadian. David Mc Nish, is an artist living in Norway. His early life however, was spent growing up in England and Denmark. He relates how it was during his first summer job, working at a printing house, that he realised there’s more to art than just drawing things. Here, he saw the transformation of blank pieces of paper into something completely different; vibrant and colourful artworks, full of messages. This fascinated him...Inspired by this experience, David went on to study graphic design and (silk) screen printing at London College of Printing - Now known as London College of Communication – and screen printing and graphics still play a role in his work today. Primarily though, he paints, either in charcoal, ink or acrylics. It was around 20 years ago, working as a graphic artist, that David started drawing and painting for himself. Something more loose [sic.] for downtime, but it developed quickly due to the interest generated. David’s happy to say that these days, both painting and graphic design are work. Two very different modi operandi though. Graphics have a fixed objective, where typically a specific message and response are desired. There’s a brief, a direction to follow! Painting, for David, is very different. Whilst his ideas are roughed out beforehand in his sketchbook, there’s still no final product in his head. So when he does go on to develop his idea on canvas, the process is one of randomness, fluidity. It’s organic, governed by spontaneity, with the images, mistakes and all, leading him, developing and finally revealing themselves as the work progresses. Most will be able to relate to David’s main sources of inspiration – Music, media, books, life – but he hopes that the ambiguity that he experiences painting, is one that he will provoke a range of different perceptions from the viewer. If you see an image here on the site that interests you, have an enquiry, commission or custom challenge in mind, please feel free to write to David on mc-nish@online.no