David West wood carvings

David West

wood carvings

Dreamscapes

27 January – 16 March 2024

David West invites you to dive into his imaginative world in his most recent exquisitely carved tropical fish. Set amongst corals, they speak of the human condition with humour and David’s unique imagination. These will show alongside painted and gilded wave carvings and a gilded pathway which together give an overview of this multi-talented artist’s journey over the past 12 years.

Please call 01308 459511 or email gallery@sladersyard.co.uk with any enquiries.

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  David West 1. The Ark carved and painted sycamore, cedar, walnut and oak w. 91.5 x h. 140 x d. 38 cm. 2020. £20,000

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  1. The Ark carved and painted sycamore, cedar, walnut and oak w. 91.5 x h. 140 x d. 38 cm. 2020. £20,000

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  Kumano Kodo gilded wood carving (purple heart) 49 x 33 cm 2012 £3,500

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  Shoreline in carved and painted tulipwood 2018 25 x 43 cm £3,600

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  Waves Past and Present in carved and gilded oak 2018 30 x 47 cm £2,800

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  Sedimentary Rocks in carved and painted spalted birch 19 x 70 cm 2018 £3,000

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  Low Tide in carved and painted spalted birch 2018 22 x 79 cm £3,000

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  Shoreline 2 in carved and painted poplar 20 x 68 cm £2,600

Fully illustrated catalogues of David West’s most recent exhibition at Sladers Yard, Tidal are available for £8 and his previous exhibition, Ebb and Flow for £10 plus £2 p&p within UK.

David West   photo: Peter Wiles

David West has been carving in wood for some forty years. His pieces have always been imaginative, witty and filled with fantasy and wonder.

An extraordinary wood-carver, David West has worked as an architect, an artist, a craftsman and a teacher during his long life. He has converted houses, restored the Town Mill in Lyme Regis, redesigned a three-acre garden for John Fowles, spent seven years building a doll’s house for a private collector and created unique and fantastical furniture, organ pipes and painted gilded carvings. He has exhibited at Fischer Fine Art, London; Ulster Museum, Belfast; Glyn Vivian, Swansea; Mead Gallery, Warwick University; the Royal Albert Museum, Exeter and has had two solo shows at Dorset County Museum and three at Sladers Yard.

Born in London in 1939, he studied painting and printmaking at Camberwell School of Art. He taught part-time at various art schools until 1972. Since then he has worked full-time as a professional artist on both commissioned and other works. He and his wife Barbara Steel, a painter, moved to Lyme Regis, Dorset, in 1981 where he still lives and works, caring for Barbara full-time. 

In 1991 he became involved with the restoration of the Town Mill in Lyme Regis. He stepped down as chairman in 2000. During this time he began running summer workshops at Parnham in Beaminster and in different parts of Japan. In 2008 he was invited by the Sasakawa Foundation of Great Britain to spend four weeks travelling and drawing in Japan. The trip included a walk along parts of the Kumano Kodo, an ancient Buddhist/Shinto pathway in the Kii Peninsular which links numerous temples and shrines, often located near waterfalls or other natural features.

For the next eight years he worked on ideas directly inspired by his experiences in Japan. At first he did not know how to express the sense of mystery and wonder the walk had evoked in him. A commission to carve new organ pipe shades for St Michael’s Church in Lyme Regis acted as a catalyst.  For the first time he experimented with gilding, under-painting and pierced carving and, using these techniques, he went on to make some large woodcarvings relating directly to his Japanese drawings. He showed these in Lyme Regis in 2010. He showed more gilded pathway carvings, their size and impact condensed to that of icons, together with woodcut prints, in his first exhibition at Sladers Yard in 2013. Later, he brought the same contemplative beauty to carvings of the foreshore Lyme Regis, moonlight on the sea and on the pond in his garden. He lives with his wife, Barbara Steel, who is also a painter. They have a daughter, and three grandchildren.

Private and public collections include the University of Warwick; Ulster Museum, Belfast; Totnes Hospital; Philpott Museum, Lyme Regis; Dorset County Museum, Dorchester; University of Ashikawa, Hokkaido; Sasakawa Foundation of Great Britain, Tokyo; St. Michael’s Church, Lyme Regis; John Makepeace Collection; Equity and Law; The Builder Group Ltd. and St. Lawrence University, New York.

One-man shows include Fischer Fine Art, London 1984; Parnham House, Beaminster 1985; a touring exhibition from 1987-8 at: Royal Albert Museum, Exeter, Glynn Vivian, Swansea, Ulster Museum, Belfast, Mead Gallery, Warwick University, Cliffe Castle, Keighley and Dorset Museum, Dorchester; Town Mill Gallery, Lyme Regis 2010; Sladers Yard, West Bay 2013, 2016 and 2019. In 2018 Dorset County Museum hosted a major retrospective of David’s carvings and paintings.

Please contact the gallery by email: gallery@sladersyard.co.uk or phone: 01308 459511 with any enquiries about David West.