In 2018 David, who is 83 years old, was living in Los Angeles but he missed the changing seasons and, not wishing to return to Britain, the idea took root that he might settle in France in Normandy. As a result, a small farmhouse was found, with an old disused cider press close by that could be converted into his studio. Builders set to work and the next spring he moved in. He recalled : “We arrived late on Saturday at the beginning of March and on Monday morning I started drawing.”
He painted the house, which he described as a “higgledy-piggledy” mixture of timber and brick and said : “There are so many paintings of Normandy, but nobody ever painted the buildings much. They probably thought they were too Hansel and Gretel. The impressionists wanted to be modern. They wanted railway stations, bridges and factory chimneys. But I realised that I am modern anyway, so I would do them.”
With the onset of the Covid 18 Pandemic in the spring, he said that he : "had always planned to do lockdown here in Normandy" and that "lockdown was good for me. I didn’t mind being locked away, just doing what I do. No visitors. That was good. I get fed up with visitors. I don’t like crowds.” This might be explained by his hereditary hearing impairment, which means he can’t tell what direction from which a sound is coming. Although, ever the artist, he believes that his loss of hearing has had the effect of letting him see space more clearly : “If you’re blind you use sounds to locate space, don’t you? And I’m using it the other way now.”
He is philosophical in old age : “The teaching of drawing is the teaching of looking. That’s the importance of art. To remind us to look and to see. Even if you are stuck inside with only one tree outside your window, you can see the leaves happen, you can see the tree grow and change. I mean, lots of people noticed spring this year and they hadn’t looked at it before. They had been too busy to notice. But when they looked at it they enjoyed it. It was spectacular this year.”
“Spring is so exciting to me. It’s the best manifestation of nature in our part of the world. And we are part of nature. I know that. And I have felt that more strongly as I have grown older.” He is now eager to get to London to see the show of Titian’s poesie paintings at the National Gallery, but is cautious : "I have had 13 years more than my three score and ten. I expect I will die soon. Then oblivion. I love life and I suppose the opposite thing of love of life is fear of death.”
A confirmed cigarette smoker he said : "There are far too many bossy people in England now. They banned us from smoking - that was the start and it's getting worse and worse. So I won't return to England to live. I'm perfectly happy in France."
https://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2020/04/britain-besieged-by-coronavirus.html
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