David Heathcote,

British b.1931 -

Witch, 1983;

oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right 'David Heathcote 1983', 61 x 76 cm (ARR)

Note: This work is by the British artist David Heathcote, who studied at the Canterbury College of Art before completing his training at the Slade School of Fine Art in London under Keith Vaughan and Claude Rogers. Heathcote is a multi-disciplinary artist who has worked in a range of media, including paintings, prints, and sculpture, over the course of his career.

This work is a wonderful example of Heathcotes oil painting from the 1980s, demonstrating a particularly intense period of experimentation with figurative expressionism, executed in the vibrant colour palette which defines much of the artists output. The work shares a language with his contemporaries such as Ken Kiff and Leon Kossoff.

Heathcote himself has described how he was heavily influenced by early twentieth century artists, including Paul Cezanne, Pierre Bonnard, and Marc Chagall, whose dreamlike and somewhat surreal interpretation of the world around them can be perceived in Heathcotes paintings. His style has also been shaped by the twenty years which he spent living in Zimbabwe and Nigeria towards the beginning of his career.

Heathcotes first solo exhibition was held in Zimbabwe in 1961. His work has also been included in the Young Contemporaries Exhibition at the RBA Gallery in London in 1958, and in shows at Ahmadu Bello University and British Council Galleries in Nigeria, theBeckel Odille Boïcos Gallery in Parisand at GV Art in London.

The artist says of this painting, 'this was painted four years after I returned from Nigeria and fuelled by thoughts of African beliefs and ritual. At that time I would destroy and remake all the painting's images in one day.'