David W Young Artist - latest news and blog

latest news & blog

8th March

I finally start emerging from this eternal Winter though the easterly winds that have plunged our little temperate island into a temporay iceberg still refuse to lessen their chilling grip on us. In the wind free environment of the greenhouse it is now warm and a joy to start planting the first tomatoes and lettuce.

Likewise I have been planning my new paintings for this coming year. I had been working on paintings that reflected this hard and trying Winter; not at all works of art that would appeal to the buying public in the galleries, but maybe paintings that will be appreciated for their artistic merit in years to come.

Now with the coming of Spring I want to escape the gloomy confines of Winter's mud, ice and darkness to work on pieces that will excite and challenge me.

THE WAVE-CRACKINGTON HAVEN-DAVID YOUNG

detail of The Wave, Crackington Haven (now on sale at the West Gallery)

I also have some good news regarding a new Gallery that is opening in North Devon. They kindly asked me to contribute some work which I have gladly done. I went up to see the artist and owner, Rob Walker, and was impressed by all the work that had been done in creating this well lit and presented new gallery.

I have been told it opens its doors on the 20th of March and goes by the name of 'West Gallery'.

I only have their address and telephone number at present; I expect they will have a web site up and running soon:

West Gallery, Glebe Farm Barn,
West Putford,
DEVON.
EX22 7XE

Tel. 01409 241989 email robwalker@small.net

THE WAVE- CRACKINGTON HAVEN-DAVID YOUNG

The Wave, Crackington Haven

11th December

...'Valley of Flowers, Dartmoor' oil painting latest - now sold

I have been over to the Paperweight Centre at Yelverton, Devon today to keep them up to date with prints and I also took over my original oil painting of 'The Valley of Flowers - Dartmoor'. I was thrilled by their reaction to the painting. It was a painting that took an enormous time and effort with the detail but I consider was worth it due to the atmosphere that is conveyed.

The painting shows the landscape of western Dartmoor below the famous Tavy Cleave. Each Spring this valley floor is a myriad of different flowers. Bluebells, Celandine, May blossom, Rowan and Gorse flowers coat the valley bottom amongst the rich greens of May. The painting is set off with a small herd of local ponies with their foals.

1st November 2009

If you are visiting Dartmoor.......

I will be showing some new pictures at The National Trust,Widecombe on Dartmoor from the beginning of November. They have kindly agreed to let me exhibit several of my Dartmoor prints including my latest pictures of Arms Tor and Grimspound.

Arms Tor, Dartmoor

Arms Tor is the latest addition to my portfolio of Dartmoor prints. It is now available from this website and all the listed galleries, as will my other new Dartmoor print of Grimspound.

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24th September 2009

The Indian Summer continues as it has done these last few weeks. After the third dreadful summer in a row it has been a wonderful period of autumnal fruitfulness. I have taken advantage of the weather and indulged in much location work on Dartmoor and coming back full of inspiration for new paintings.

I am currently working on a large Dartmoor landscape. It is one of those paintings that evolve as I change my mind and paint bits out and add bits in. I have no idea how other people will view it but it has certainly been giving me a challenge.

I have just completed a limited edition print of the Bronze Age settlement of Grimspound on the eastern side of Dartmoor. It is now avaible to purchase on this website and all my galleries.

Grimspound, Darmoor/print/painting/David Young

Grimspound, Dartmoor

A new limited edition print by David Young

5th August 2009

YOUNG SWALLOWS-DOG KENNEL

Five young swallows have outgrown the nest in my dog's kennel. Today they take their leave of the nest and move out along the beam. Their first step in a journey that will take them to southern Africa in a matter of just several weeks. If they make it........

Above my back garden, as the young swallows chatter for the meals brought in by their parents every couple of minutes, twenty or so swallows, including this years first brood take to the sky in a frenzy. They shriek an alarm call but not the usual one that I hear in the presence of a sparrow hawk or cat. This is different, one I have not heard before. Up above, amongst the swirling swallows is a bird of prey with menacing pointed wings. Either a peregrine falcon or a hobby; I can't tell.

The swallows repeatedly dive at it but it continues to circle above my head not in the least concerned about my presence. Has it seen something and is about to stoop?

No. The fearful realization dawns on me that it is only biding its time. Round and round it circles with the frantic swallows skimming past its head. And from a gentle circular glide it instantly strikes into a kill.

It only took a second. A young naive swallow clearly wriggles hopelessly in it talons as I look on sickened. It hovers, like a kestrel, for a few moments, still pestered by surviving swallows before this master of the skies glides away to the Cornish border to feed its young.

25th November 2008

Last Saturday I took Thomas out on the moors as usual with a few friends. Though dry it had followed a week of fairly persistent rain and the ground was waterlogged. Over the last few years the 'management' of large parts of the moor has changed with less grazing by livestock. In a remarkably short time vegetation has flourished and the soil structure has been less compact. In consequence the soil now acts more like a sponge.

This is good news in that Dartmoor will now act as a slow, releasing reservoir but it can mean the going is heavier going on the horse.

Despite the conditions the horses were in fine fettle and the landscape had a pale earthen hue redolent of those winter days following the celebrations of Christmas. In other words not for everyone but I love it.

But what changed this day in to something far more extraordinary was the sudden flight out of the long, dead grasses of a short eared owl. I had seen a similar bird twice in the last twenty years.

This one flew low for about a hundred yards and disappeared back in to the long grass. On we went and crossed the leat to return on the higher side. Sure enough it again alighted and then gave us a marvellous display of day time hunting as it covered the ground, up and down, only a few feet above the grasses.

It wasn't in the least bit perturbed by our presence and continued to hunt for what seemed an eternity before disappearing out of sight. Unusual for an owl in being a day time hunter it commands an impressive presence. With a wingspan not far from a buzzards and pale brown plumage it seemed made for this wild landscape.

A Well Earned Rest - A pair of collie dogs enjoying the view. Limited edition print from an original oil painting by artist David Young (please click here

The oringinal oil painting of Wheal Betsy is on show and for sale at Mayflower Galleries, Tavistock.

Tel. 01822 613665

Wheal Betsy Engine House.

Mary Tavy, Dartmoor

I have just released a print of the only surviving engine house still standing on the moor.

The picture shows the site of the old lead & silver mine amid the hills and valleys of west

Devon. I painted it during late summer when the grasses have turned and the heathers are in flower.

The print is a limited edition of 350, available in a variety of frames and can be bought from all the galleries that sell my work. It will shortly be available on this site when it is updated.

The size of the framed print is approximately 21 X 16 inches, is hand signed and numbered and ready to hang. The picture has been affordably priced at £83.

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The Garjia Devi temple, river Kosi flood plain, near Nainital - Himalayan foothills, India.

I thought it was time to mention why there is a painting of an Indian temple in my porfolio of paintings. It has to to do with the fact that I'm a bit of an Indophile. Over the years I have travelled quite a few times to India. Thanks largely to a rather remarkable English women who has an intimate knowledge and love of the country I was privileged to ride and discover large parts of this stunning and enigmatic land.

Over the years I have completed some very large projects from my Indian days ( now heart breakingly in the past due to my commitment to never fly again). The Garjia Devi temple is one such project. This temple, which sits on a huge rock covered in vegetation on a flood plain below the Himalayan foothill station of Nainital, attracts thousands of pilgrims every year. I have been lucky to visit it on a few occasions when passing through on horseback to Nainital.

To do justice to this truly magnificent panorama I decided the painting had to be on a similar scale. It ended up being over six feet wide but though taking more months than I wish to count in completion creates a painting that I feel takes your breath away.

By painting on this scale I feel I have done justice to the cameos in the painting such as the women faggot carriers returning from the hills, the pilgrims crossing the hand made bridge, and of course the detail that needed to be put into forested foothills.

n.b. If you are interested in my Indian works please contact me via e mail on my 'contacts' page.

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The other week I was looking through my bookcase and I happened upon a book that I bought back in 1972. It is called ONLY ONE EARTH, The Care and Maintenance of a Small Planet and was published for a conference by the United Nations on the human environment in June 1972. What was remarkable was how much is still relevant today, how much has come to pass and depressingly how little has been acted upon. One interesting chapter concerns population growth and how it was then considered such a worry. The predictions have been fairly accurate, but this pressing problem, especialy in the now urgent concern of individual carbon footprints is now off the political agenda.

For me, the most astonishing chapter was at the end of the book. Here it dwelt on possible future problems, and to my great suprise the subject of Carbon and the greenhouse affect reared its head - this report I repeat was back in 1972 - 35 years ago! In it they mention the now much vaunted 2 degree tipping point and a likely 0.5 degree increase in temperature by the year 2000. And they were RIGHT!!

Although this book was fascinating it has left me with a rather bad sense of forboding. It seems that if the latest predictions are correct, we only have a handful of years to slash our Carbon economies and yet with the wisdom of history it now apparent that not only have we not yet done anything in these last 35 years but gleefully and extravagantly stoked the fire.

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My new family of baby swallaw chicks up in the eave of the dog kennel

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Deforestation: The hidden cause of global warming.

In the next 24 hours, deforestation will release as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying from London to New York. Stopping the loggers is the fastest and cheapest solution to climate change. So why are global leaders turning a blind eye to this?

So ran the headline in The Independent on 22nd May. It goes on in some detail and shows that Indonesia and Brazil are now the largest emitters of greenhouse gasses after the USA and China even though they are largely non industrial nations. The whole thing is grim reading, but your probaly thinking why am I bringing this up when I should be waxing lyrical about the beauty of the English landscape in May? Well the reason is this.....Damned if I am going to destroy any more of the tropical rainforests just so I can frame lovely views of the British countryside. It really is a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. As I have said before most pictures are framed in tropical and sub tropical wood - a lot of it supplied by dastardly means.

I have researched the various options - no to plastic frames- and decided pine is my best bet. I will keep a close eye on things and see if if can improve its accreditation as standards improve - which they must.

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