David Tress: an artist of independent spirit

Like all artists of independent spirit, David Tress (born 1955) resists categorisation. He has been called a Romantic and a Neo-Romantic, a mixture of Impressionist and Expressionist, a traditionalist and a modernist, yet not one of these labels quite fits. He is all and none, drawing his inspiration from the great traditions of western art but principally from the British landscape that continues to evoke a response in him that can only find outlet through drawing and painting. Tress is a landscape painter and draughtsman of great poignancy, imbuing his dramatically coloured and vigorously constructed works with an emotional intensity that makes them difficult to ignore. He paints and draws on the thickest of watercolour papers, but frequently attacks the surface (with all kinds of tools and cutting implements) with such energy and fervour that he will penetrate right through and have to patch over, or under, another sheet before he carries on.