The Artist

David Quinlan is mod artist from Leigh on sea. His paintings inspire a generation of Mod’s to flock to his gallery in Essex to view his works of art.  Please have a look around the gallery and see what prints are available to buy. If you require a special commission by the artist please contact us and we will come back to you as soon as possible.

Peripheral vision – The Mighty Quinlan

Many an old style ‘face’ appears in the work of the artist David John Quinlan, they could even be you. Plentiful in memory, these paintings evoke the greatest mod street fashion more devoutly than any other. Quinlan is certainly a man alone in his consistent portrayal of urbanite scooterphiles and their ink.

In paintings such as ‘Southend Tomorrow?’ you as a viewer get a real feeling of presence from the image. It takes little imagination to see yourself within asking the question ‘Are yer coming then?’ The scene is very well portrayed.

One of the things i recon stirs the empathy in the viewer is the fact that Quinlan does not readily feature his ‘faces’ with little more than a haircut. The paintings are indeed like peripheral vision, and you are forced to look around the study for points of reference, as there are no recognizable visage on which to focus, so you must survey the scene.

This is surely how memory traces when revising a passed time. You place yourself in the moment, the location, wearing the clothes / style etc. Where you waited with others with the same high for the event remembered. The anonymity of each character breathes an unspoken familiarity, you know they’re with you. Each one on the anonymous visitor to a place in which many of us may have been.

Critique by Gareth Scott – On Target

Who are the faces of Quinlan? I’d almost prefer not to find out, so I can share watery visions and steal these memories as my own. Myths are made of this.

Real iconography is to be found in the scooter imagery. Quinlan’s images possess a more drawn like quality in technique rather than painted. ‘Leigh Scooter action’ would look mint as massive and proud as the Easter Island heads. Some real scale, you feel, would suit his work later. as it is dynamic of his compositions reflect the week cut sharpness and style of the drags and their machines. A strong defining edge to the lines he used suggests a cleanliness of the be-suited fellows lying beneath his workings.

This is a real visual memory of time, ethos and style not faces. The time pictured has passed, but the style in the transcended and remains integral, modernistic. These works are perfectly suited for ‘modern’ remembrance, recording history in details to place it within our contemporary lives. good they are, have a look and remember.