David Pratt

David Pratt was born in Denmead, Hampshire in 1962. He studied Fine Art at Portsmouth College of Art & Design (1979-82) and at Chichester University (2003-06). After leaving his first period of education he worked in the printing industry and as a bricklayer, eventually taking a part time job as a gardener to fund his developing art and allow him more time for his art work. Pratt has always drawn prolifically, and the flexibility of this method has allowed him to work continuously throughout these career changes. He has been involved in several drawing exhibitions over the past couple of years and was also the Portrait Artist During Exhibition at Chichester Open Art Exhibition in November 2005. His work, Suburban Odyssey, created for his degree show, now resides at the Cass Sculpture Foundation in Goodwood. In September 2006, Pratt will take a place at the Prince's Drawing School where he has been awarded a scholarship for a place on 'The Drawing Year' postgraduate diploma.

In recent work Pratt has exploited drawing's capacity as a tool of heightened imagination. He says that his work "generally tweaks the everyday, transcending expectations to develop symbols and narratives". The human figure is central to his work, and through this he seeks "the universal through the specific". He sets out to develop personal mythologies, often using symbolism in the juxtapositions of the everyday. He uses semi-portraiture, rather than unfocused crowds, to hint at narrative and takes his imagery from a wide variety of eras, interchanging them to create a complex world of intrigue. The move into three-dimensional work with Suburban Odyssey grew out of a desire to lend these worlds more form, to make his more outlandish images architectural.