PAINTER | PRINT MAKER

David is reluctant to talk about his work as he believes very strongly that the work should speak for itself. It should be approached with an open mind uncluttered by any preconceptions or wordy explanations. These can often get in the way and prevent the viewer from experiencing the work at first hand with an open heart, so that its magic and metaphysical nature can sing freely to the receptive soul.

Platts is profoundly contemplative and metaphoric. Industrial coach enamels and household paints (which first made their appearance in his work in the 1960’s) are used alongside the more traditional media of watercolour, gouache, oil and acrylic.

He works from a premise of “an order in space” and every stage of the making of the artifact is meticulously controlled. The motif of either single or multiple fully interlocking shapes is developed with numerous permutations and combinations and nothing is left to chance – the “accident” has no role to play in his work. The picture plane, its boundaries and surround are considered as a whole: the frame is conceived as an integral part of each painting, the image sometimes growing organically beyond the generally accepted boundaries of the picture surface onto the frame. Through colour, line, form and texture David Platts expresses profound degrees of feeling, the scale and intensity of which vary in nature as a sonata may vary from a symphony.