DFS Paintings and Prints 

The beginning

My interest in art and painting long predates 2003, but this is where I’ll begin here.  

In the summer of 2003 I was living in South Devon working as a local newspaper reporter, and painting at the weekends.  But it was very soon not enough, whether it was the convergence of local lay-lines that conspired to agitate the painting genes in me I don't know, but I felt increasingly compelled to paint.  And so, eventually, the inevitable dilemma:  how was I to have the time to paint and be able to support myself at the same time? 

The answer was not long in coming: why not go – or rather return - to Spain of course!  Since I had lived in Madrid for a year and a half after university in the mid-nineties and taught English, I knew that teaching English was an option to pay the bills while affording me the time I so desperately wanted to paint.  The next question was where to go?  I didn’t want to live in a big city, but I wanted to live somewhere very Spanish with good transport links to the UK.  Málaga, Picasso’s hometown, soon loomed large in my imagination and seemed to tick all the boxes.  And so it was that in the summer of 2003 I packed up my little car and headed south through France and Spain.

 PART 1: Málaga August 2003 - August 2005 

In August 2003 in my small studio on the third floor of the tenement building in Málaga's historic centre, not far from Picasso's birthplace, painting gripped me as intensely as the Andalucian summer sun beat down. 

I worked long days in my studio painting exclusively in acrylic. The desire to express social commentary, in particular, was dominant. I sought to evoke sentiment, or provoke thought, by way of this expression. This I hoped to achieve with a picture that embraced strong aesthetic values of form and colour. Many of the pictures I produced in this period I believe to this day largely achieved their objective in the main due to a combination of intense focus and honesty. 

As well as this social commentary I was also drawn to portraiture: the pictorial expression of a person’s essential character, and landscapes: a homage to nature in an attempt to capture the essence of a scene. While in Málaga I painted the portrait of the then famous Spanish humourist, Angel Garo, and the local artist, Salvador , as well as many others. 

And so I worked feverishly, and no doubt people who witnessed it frowned and wondered. 

In a fundamental way that two years in Málaga epitomised what art is all about. That is, at least for me, an honesty and vigor in expression. Later I would become more and more consumed by technical considerations, and while that can be good, it can also cloud the lens and inhibit the vision of the essence of art: which to express an idea through an aesthetic; both, with clarity and honesty. As a Portuguese artist I knew then, Antonio Almeida, once said to me, the words resonate: "You have started as a good artist, don't finish as a bad one." I believe this is what he meant by that: that artists can start honest and focused and then with the passage of time get distracted by other considerations and lose something essential. 

So, with a lack of experience and therefore abundant naivety, I started running before I could walk and my first serious work in Málaga comprised some relatively complex social commentary compositions which, I have to say, in the main accomplished what I had set out to achieve, and in that respect to this day they remain some of my best work I have done. These include (see Malaga galleries) such grave issues as the Spanish Civil War, ethnic persecution and genocide and orchestrated violence; in pictures such as “The Game of Chess”, “Going Away”, “The Road to Almeria”, and “Wailing Women” . Alongside this work you can also see lighter observational works, such as “Lunchtime” and “The Cobbler at Work”, and more aesthetic-focused work such as “High Society”. All of this Malága work - though I would say the social commentary in particular - marked a crucial step forward for me both as an artist, and also in a very personal sense, as I found I had a voice by way of artistic expression. 

While my two years spent in Malága happily provided me with a bounty of inspiration covering a range of subject matter I was also very fortunate in another way. This was that my work was recognised very early on by The Association of Málaga Artists in the form of Paco Jurado, its president, who went about getting me a significant public exhibition in the Sala Moreno Villa Gallery in the centre of Málaga. This exhibition, aptly entitled "Málaga, the first step", marked the culmination of two years work. It also, for both professional and personal reasons, marked the time for me to move on... 

PART 2: Time to move on; Granada Sept. 2005 - 2008 

In Granada I started to paint in oil as oppose to acrylic and this was another steep learning curve. I proceeded to work almost immediately in the first year towards an exhibition at the commercial Cidi Hiaya gallery in the centre of Granada. This exhibition took the somewhat convoluted title of “Sultanas, Granadinas, Roxanas y Diosas” and predominantly comprised more aesthetic-focused work. I soon realised it was a forced exhibition, one which I was not ready to have and left me feeling hollow and deeply dissatisfied. But it was an important lesson too: I knew thereafter that I was not meant to chase exhibitions; that my work had to satisfy me first and everyone else second.  

So, perhaps as if in part to put this experience behind me, I looked for another focus, and this came in the form of India. I had felt increasingly drawn to the east for some time, mostly from an aesthetic point of view, and no doubt my time in Andalucia had fostered this interest. I proceeded therefore to plan a trip to Rajasthan in September and October 2006 with my sights firmly set on absorbing and recording as much as I could in the time I had there. This I subsequently did by way of lots of sketching, study pictures, and photographs. The trip was a much cherished success in that it gifted me with the aesthetic inspiration which I had so hoped it would: the vibrant colours; the simple acts of existence; the light; the interaction of man and animal; and the interaction of the people with water, and so much more that no doubt was subconscious. A few of these works you can see in the Rajasthan gallery, which features pictures of an observational nature, as well as more aesthetic-focused work. 

Then came a couple more small exhibitions: one in England and one in Granada; but they came at the right time and were manageable. 

PART 3:  Just keep working; Granada 2008 - 2023:  

- You lead me to the garden to marvel at the views only for me to realise how far I am from doing them justice. 

Painting is about capturing “the essential nature” of something, whatever that may be, by way of your own personal aesthetic. The expression of this “essence” is truth, and when combined with the achievement of the personal aesthetic, the artist has fulfilled their goal.  

And then, came realisation. Realisation that the work thus far, though honest and sometimes with a degree of merit to it, was not going to satisfy me moving forward in terms of technical level. I realised I aspired to attaining a certain aesthetic, and that the attainment of this would require a technical base that only sustained hard work over a period of time could hope to achieve. 

So that’s essentially what did from 2008 to the early 20's: I predominantly worked on pictures of relatively simple one-figure composition in a bid to improve my technical accomplishment and achieve expression through a personal aesthetic. 

PART4:  Break out of the bubble;  Granada 2024:   

At the end of 2023 I did a printing workshop and a new fuse ignited.  Not only did I love the new vista of possibilities that opened up for pictorial aesthetic effects, but it meant a new opportunity to visit old drawings and themes and give them new life. 

This coincided with a desire to finally give things a try and break out of the bubble that I had thus far confined myself to. In May 2024 I took part in an art fair in Marbella.  It was great to interact with the public and other artists.  

So this brings everything up to date.  I am still painting and printing, but would really like to interact with the outside world now, whether that means exhibiting, selling or by another means.  Watch this space...

Daniel Fermor-Smith, November 2024