David Hopkins

David Hopkins is a realist figurative painter based in South London.

About his works, David shares, “Although my work spans portraits, life-painting, still-life, landscapes, I don’t see them as disparate ventures. I think they have coherence because what interests me is the sweep and energy of everything. For me they’re all portraits, of all the everyday important stuff that surrounds us.

I usually paint from life but more recently I’ve been influenced by discussions with a painter friend whose work chimes with mine, to re-look at painting from photo-references and memory of feeling and mood.”

“I think formally my paintings probably look ‘mine’ – though I’m not interested in imitating myself or trying for an artistic style – because I’m always interested in composition (sometimes awkward compositions), rich colour, and I’m a great fan of ambitious large-scale figurative art (Baroque, Rococo). Over the last few years I have made a kind of breakthrough by scaling up the size, to avoid getting stuck in painting and re-painting fine detail with fine brushes. I prefer painting large when I can.”

His paintings have been long-listed for all the main UK national art competitions, including the NPG BP Award, NEAC, RP, RS Oil Painters. His Double Self-Portrait with Mobile Phone was selected for the 2019 Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait exhibition. Another painting has just been selected for the FBA’s Figurative Art Now 2021.

Hopkins exhibit regularly in south London.