David Ridley art is about the feeling of a place more than the view. Rather than recording a landscape faithfully, he treats it as a starting point, and what emerges is atmospheric, semi-abstract and built up in layers of oil. He trained in Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University, graduating in 2011, and he cites J.M.W. Turner’s handling of natural light as a key influence. He is drawn to the most rugged, exposed stretches of the British coastline, and to the moment when stillness gives way to storm.
His work has been shown at Grand Designs Live London and The Affordable Art Fair, featured on Channel 4’s Grand Designs in 2019, and now hangs in private collections as far afield as Qatar and New Zealand, including commissions for Qatari royalty. More recently he has been working industrial and building materials, including texture pastes, into his paintings, which gives the surface a raw, almost sculptural quality. We’ve chosen three pieces that show how far that approach stretches.
Three Pieces To Know
1. Eternal Light
A brilliant core of white light radiates through a dense band of trees, painted in deep ambers, rusts and blacks. Vertical streaks of warm gold and cool blue rise through the composition like light filtering through mist, and the whole scene is mirrored in still water below, which doubles its intensity and draws the eye to the centre. It’s an original painting on canvas, 119 x 80cm, in a white floater frame (121 x 82cm framed), and the largest of the three. The layered surface rewards close looking, and the mood is one of stillness before something changes.
2. Afterglow
A heart-shaped bloom of magenta, violet and soft turquoise cloud opens at the centre of a hazy, smoke-grey sky, above near-black silhouetted hills. Below, the same colour spills into the water in shimmering streaks of pink, white and deep plum. Ridley contrasts thick, visible impasto in the clouds with smoother, more fluid strokes in the sea, so you can almost see the light moving on the surface. It’s an original seascape, signed by the artist, 80 x 80cm in a 2cm float frame (86 x 86cm framed), and it sits somewhere between a sunset and a storm clearing.
3. Sailing Ashore
Dark storm clouds part over a silvered sea, with a luminous break of pale gold and silver at the horizon. Two small sailboats, their white sails catching the same light, sit far out on the water, giving the scene scale and a quiet story. The sea is built up in thick, textured passages of blue, silver and near-black, with ridges of paint that catch the gallery light and shift as you move past. A low, dark headland anchors the left side. It’s an original textured oil on canvas, signed, 92 x 61cm in a white float frame, and the most accessible of the three.
Seeing them in person
Every piece comes framed and ready to hang, with free UK delivery, free collection from the gallery and free 14 day returns. If you’d like to see them before deciding, call in to Our House Gallery on Church Street in Market Harborough, or explore the full David Ridley collection.
