DAVID INSHAW
Prints and drawings: Dorset and Wiltshire Stories
We are delighted to represent David Inshaw, the consummate painter of the English landscape. Called ‘perhaps the greatest living proponent of the English Romantic tradition’ (Spectator), Inshaw invokes the powers of the night, the moon, trees, bonfires, fireworks, the sea, birds, animals, men, women, children and ancient landscapes to create his intensely personal dreamlike paintings, prints and drawings.
David Inshaw is an experimental and brilliant print-maker. Our 2021 exhibition brought together etchings and aquatint etchings from a lifetime and included a number of rare and collectable Artist’s Proofs as well as small numbered editions. We are pleased to continue to offer David’s prints.
Please contact Anna Powell on gallery@sladersyard.co.uk or phone 01308 459511 to enquire about any of David Inshaw’s work. Works shown below may not be in stock at Sladers Yard but should be available to buy or view by appointment
First group: Wiltshire Landscapes, a set of 6 aquatint etchings, plus Artist’s Proofs, small numbered editions, Portraits and the 10 + 1 Cricket Game etchings. All prices are inclusive of vat for unframed etchings. Framing is available and postage/couriers will be charged at cost. Please click to enlarge images.
Second group: Tree Drawings and Bonfire Etchings
Please contact Anna Powell on gallery@sladersyard.co.uk or phone 01308 459511 to enquire about any of David Inshaw’s work.
From 1966-75 David Inshaw taught painting and print-making at the West of England College of Art, Bristol, and throughout his career, he has enjoyed periods of the collaborative process of printmaking. This exhibition brings together all the prints that he has available to buy. The earliest date back to 1986 and have not been seen for many years. His Wiltshire Landscapes series from 1989-92 are some of his most Romantic works of art. Inspired by Samuel Palmer, one of David’s great heroes, they tap into a sense of the spirit of the English countryside, a visionary Romantic ideal and energy that powers the best of English landscape art. In addition to the set of 6 aquatint etchings, we also have a few copies of the artist’s proofs which show how David developed these final pieces, via stunning black and white tonal works one of which was later split into two separate aquatint etchings.
In 1994 he revisited Silbury Hill, the oldest prehistoric mound in Europe, a site that has always fascinated him and which he has painted many times. Silbury at Night is worked in a more delicate detailed style than the Wiltshire Landscapes. There is one copy left from the edition of 35 aquatint/etchings in rich colour plus a couple of copies of the Artist’s proofs for the work which are very beautiful black and white etchings in themselves.
Cricket has always been a passion for David Inshaw. The team he belonged to, mostly of poets, musicians and writers, used to come and play at Little Bredy cricket ground, near Bridport, every year. David’s two magnificent Cricket Game paintings celebrate those games in that magical place. Here now are the 10 cricket game etchings which take us through a cricketing day via the players, the surrounding trees and River Bride, the tea, and one larger etching, Mark Martin Batting.
From 1989 – 95 David lived with his second wife, Shelagh Popham and her young daughter, in a farmhouse in Clyro, Wales. Some of his most vivid memories from that time are of bonfires and fireworks amongst the trees and hills there, the subject of a number of thrilling paintings. Bonfires and fireworks are some of the motifs that reappear in David’s work over the years in different combinations and settings, sometimes Clyro and sometimes West Bay. They seem emblematic of the state of his heart, its highs and lows, the beginnings and endings of relationships. The six bonfire etchings of 2019 are very strong and wild, textured with carborundum.
David Inshaw’s drawings seem to come from a lighter more contemplative mood. Each of his three vast tree portraits, the oak, the willow and the sycamore is, as Andrew Lambirth wrote, ‘a demonstration of versatility, a virtuoso statement of the act of drawing.’ Completed between 2016 and 2019, these awe-inspiring works of art celebrate their subjects faithfully, wonderfully, just as they were.
Please contact the gallery with any enquiries about David Inshaw’s work.
Technical information:
Etching is a printmaking technique where lines are cut into a metal plate using acid. The ink for printing is held in the lines. Aquatint is also an intaglio (incised) printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. Aquatints can be printed in colour or black and white. The technique involves exposing a copperplate to acid through a layer of granulated resin. Although some artists print their own work, print-making is often a collaborative process involving highly skilled professional printers and their presses.
Giclée prints are printed from photographs of paintings on art paper using guaranteed high-quality inks. Some of David Inshaw’s Giclée prints are in signed open editions and others in signed numbered editions.
Sladers Yard 