David Buckden

David Buckden is an artist living and working in the UK who produces vibrant abstract geometric art.

All Memory and Fate
David Buckden
2007
Acrylic on canvas
61cm x 61cm
All Memory and Fate David Buckden 2007 Acrylic on canvas 61cm x 61cm
Anything She Sees
David Buckden
2007
Acrylic on canvas
61cm x 61cm
Anything She Sees David Buckden 2007 Acrylic on canvas 61cm x 61cm
Geranium Kiss
David Buckden
2007
Acrylic on canvas
61cm x 61cm
Geranium Kiss David Buckden 2007 Acrylic on canvas 61cm x 61cm

Originally a painter, in the late 1960s David gave up painting and instead concentrated on installations and film-making as this was very much the fashionable thing to do at the time. It wasn’t until 1999 that he returned to painting. Since then he has created 13 series of paintings. Starting originally with a Pop Art series, his work has gradually evolved into purely abstract, geometric art. The scientific aspects of visual perception – particularly that concerned with geometry, pattern and colour – have become fundamental to David’s work.

Gently Bentley
David Buckden
2008
Acrylic on canvas
61cm x 61cm
Gently Bentley David Buckden 2008 Acrylic on canvas 61cm x 61cm
'Til Eternity
David Buckden
2008
Acrylic on canvas
61cm x 61cm
‘Til Eternity David Buckden 2008 Acrylic on canvas 61cm x 61cm
Where it's Hid
David Buckden
2008
Acrylic on canvas
61cm x 61cm
Where it’s Hid David Buckden 2008 Acrylic on canvas 61cm x 61cm

Did you study art?

Yes – I took Fine Art at Harrow School of Art and at Nottingham College of Art, graduating with the Dip AD degree in 1971.

Why do you like Op Art?

I strive to create images which have a kinetic existence in the viewer’s perception; the ability of Op Art to interact with and interfere with our mechanisms of visual perception is something that fascinates me. My recent series of paintings have been primarily concerned with:

– Relative degrees of symmetry – e.g. symmetrical structure, but with irregular components
– Harmonies and dissonance of colour
– Patterns which can be ‘assembled’ in the eye to form large, emblematic shapes
– The role and reality (or otherwise) of after-images

Vague Traces
David Buckden
2007
Acrylic on canvas
61cm x 61cm
Vague Traces David Buckden 2007 Acrylic on canvas 61cm x 61cm
Light the Candles
David Buckden
2007
Acrylic on canvas
50cm x 50cm
Light the Candles David Buckden 2007 Acrylic on canvas 50cm x 50cm
Symmetry in Bits
David Buckden
2007
Acrylic on canvas
61cm x 61cm
Symmetry in Bits David Buckden 2007 Acrylic on canvas 61cm x 61cm

How do you make your art?

I paint in acrylic, using tape to achieve clean hard edges. Each work is fully pre-planned both for form and colour.

Who has inspired you?

As a practising painter I acknowledge many influences, from the very literary – Kitaj for example – to the makers of purely visual, self-contained experiences such as Rothko. My own work in more recent times has been of the latter type, but its major influencer was at work on my senses as an art student way back in the Sixties – the incomparable Bridget Riley.

Fire in the Sun
David Buckden
2007
Acrylic on canvas
61cm x 61cm
Fire in the Sun David Buckden 2007 Acrylic on canvas 61cm x 61cm
Snapshot #3
David Buckden
2010
Acrylic on canvas
40cm x 40cm
Snapshot #3 David Buckden 2010 Acrylic on canvas 40cm x 40cm
Symmetry with Gravity
David Buckden
2009
Giclee print
28cm x 28cm
Symmetry with Gravity David Buckden 2009 Giclee print 28cm x 28cm

Think ‘Op’ and you surely must immediately also think ‘Riley’. However, I’m also very mindful of Bridget’s own scepticism about the application of the Op tag to work within the Sixties ‘fad’, wherein the style was used indiscriminately in popular design/decor/clothing. What you see in Bridget’s work is something far more significant than trick optical effects. And it’s a body of work which hardly any artist has ever rivalled, in terms of its sheer scale, range and continuing development.

Paul Moorhouse has summed things up very succinctly: Riley’s paintings exist on their own terms. Each work has its own character and each is self contained in the sense that, like a piece of music, its structure arises from purely internal formal or expressive considerations generated by the relationships between its component parts.

Reels of Rhyme
David Buckden
2007
Acrylic on canvas
61cm x 61cm
Reels of Rhyme David Buckden 2007 Acrylic on canvas 61cm x 61cm
Elsa
David Buckden
2008
Acrylic on canvas
61cm x 61cm
Elsa David Buckden 2008 Acrylic on canvas 61cm x 61cm
Elke
David Buckden
2008
Acrylic on canvas
61cm x 61cm
Elke David Buckden 2008 Acrylic on canvas 61cm x 61cm

Recent exhibitions include:

2011 Patterned Beetroot Tree Gallery, Derby

2008/09/10 Canterbury Art Fair UCA, Canterbury

2008 Location Quay Arts, Newport, Isle of Wight

2007 LM Open Finalists The Gallery, Cork Street, London

2007 United Artists Cottons Centre, London

2006 Headturner IOTA, Ramsgate

2006 Under the Influence IOTA, Ramsgate

2005 Images in the City Geffrye Museum, London

2004 Recent Paintings Oregano, Deal

2004 Recent Paintings Fuse Gallery, Sandwich

David Buckden by

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