David Tress

Was born in London in 1955 and has lived in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire since 1976. After gaining a Fine Art Degree at Trent Polytechnic he became involved in conceptual and performance art but later rejected modernism which as a rite of passage has brought to his landscape and figurative painting some aspects of abstraction retained from his earlier work. He paints only in his studio using sketches and ideas jotted down on the spot. For the most part he works on paper using a combination of materials, most frequently gouache, ink and oil crayon to create the rich mix of colours which distinguish his work. The turbulent forces of nature are often evoked by a vigorous application of paint, or by scraping or scarring paint and paper with a palette knife. In 1999 he was one of forty-eight British Artists and Designers commissioned by the Royal Mail to design the Millennium special issue of stamps.