David Dipnall’s evocative images of the restful pastoral scenes of Southern England are well known, epitomising, as they have for years, all that is endearing about traditional art values in English Landscapes. What is not perhaps so widely known is that in the course of achieving that unique sense of ‘presence’ in his pictures, a sense of being ‘home’, he travels many miles away from his chosen subject.


Always a traveller, he believes in the philosophy that ‘absence’ makes the heart grow fonder’ and Dipnall does paint from the heart. He estimates that he has travelled about 1.5 million miles in the last decade in maintaining a busy schedule of exhibitions and commuting between his homes in England and Australia.


“I don't remember a 'beginning' of the inclination to paint, since, like most children, my early years were full of the simple joys of visual expression through drawing and painting. It seemed that every family member I knew could draw, paint, sing, and play musical instruments. Perhaps in those pre-television days such skills were more commonplace than they are today. However, when I progressed to secondary education with a scholarship to Portsmouth Grammar School, I found to my consternation that a serious study or practice of Art was regarded with disdain, to say the least. So it was, that for nearly a quarter of a century my artistic leanings lay fallow, whilst I succumbed to the trials and tribulations of a career in manufacturing industry, only to be re-awakened during my time teaching craft and design at Geelong Grammar School in Australia. Teaching was already a new direction in my life, so it was not difficult to make one more step and try to become a professional artist. My wife, small son, and I returned to England in May 1974, and I began painting the English Landscape. Long may it continue!


Whilst at Geelong, I became familiar with the works of the Heidelberg school, a group of artists working in and around Melbourne around the turn of the century. Their works not only documented the struggle of the early pioneers against difficult conditions in a strange land, but also revealed the astonishing beauty of the Australian 'bush'.


My own reactions to these paintings stirred a deep longing to create my own impressions of the landscapes, and I decided to return to England to embark on this new career.


When I first became a painter, I thought that one was either a 'landscape' painter, or a 'portrait' painter, or a 'still-life' painter, and so on. I now know the truth of it. Either one is an Artist, or one is not. The Artist sees, he feels, and he expresses. I have painted the land, I have painted the sea, I have painted you, and have painted me. Clothed or naked, rain or shine, all mine eyes see, through paint, is mine. There are no favourites, just an endless desire for more time to paint, more years to learn.


Each artist develops an individual 'style' over time, and I am no different. For a given medium of expression, (in my case, oil paints on stretched canvas), the style develops as the artist gains confidence to apply the colour without conscious restraint. Early efforts that may be guided by a desire to emulate others work, such as my early attitudes to the Heidelberg Painters (have I painted this as he/she would have done?) are replaced by the ability to believe in one's own work (this painting says what I wanted it to say).We all have individual voices, unless we are copying someone else. (Which, of course, is illegal!) Yes. My Art Teacher at Portsmouth Grammar School once caned me quite severely for coming second in Art. I never came second again. That was my only formal training. I am, however, still learning a great deal.


There is no such thing as a typical day! If there were, I would probably tire of painting. There are so many aspects of painting, so many tasks to be done, that life continues at a blur. Days to be spent wandering the countryside, stocking up on the material, filling the 'well' from which I will later draw. Cataloguing material, stretching canvasses, buying brushes, paints, delivering paintings, don't be late, it opens at six, "Hello! How lovely to see you again, are you enjoying the Exhibition?", meetings with the Publishers, signings, talks, this is the third time down this motorway today, don't miss the 'plane!


Over 100 trips round the World in the last 20 years. It's a business (as well as a pleasure!) and when the Head Office is in Australia, and the heart office is in England.


There is too many artists who have inspired me to list them all, but a selection, in alphabetical order, would include: J. Constable, J. Corot, D. Davies*, F. McCubbin*, Rembrandt, T. Roberts*, D. Shepherd, C. Southern*, A. Streeton*, J. Turner, J. Whistler, W. Withers*, etc, etc.(* Heidelberg School artists) Apologies to those I have not listed, so many wonderful minds, perceiving eyes, gifted hands. Some remain private, but the predictable ones of continuous improvement and greater integrity have always underpinned my work ethic.


So much of Art results from the experience of life itself, so if I take more time to 'smell the Flowers', I may learn more. Not just how things 'look', but how they 'are'. Art is all about communication, - you cannot communicate what you do not know. In a nutshell, to enhance my life, and that of others, through the expression of my work. Only those that are probably unattainable. All that is both possible and achievable becomes a target, not an ambition. To get my golf handicap down to single figures is probably an ambition.”