Visions of Richmond and Beyond - David Lawrence - The Station

Visionary landscapes and figurative paintings in the tradion of Blake, Palmer and Ravillious

There is a strong tradition of Visionary Surrealism that has run through the history of British Art for over a thousand years - it is not true that Surrealism originated in Europe in the early twentieth century - surely it had already been long established here. The English have long had a love of the magical, the strange and the absurd - from the skewed perspective and bizarre, miraculous occurrences in Medieval Illuminations; through William Blake's 'Portrait of a Flea' and Samuel Palmer's 'Magic Apple Tree'; to Stanley Spencer's resurrected villagers & commonplace saints and Kit William's Masquerading Hare. And Surrealism is a tradition that remains alive & well today.

David's work is rooted in the English Idiom: in its landscape, customs, traditions and eccentricities. This is a place of history and mystery and his work often references past legends and myths - both real and imagined.