| I select all my works via instinct and intuition rather than any intellectual reasoning. |  |
David Laity
I select all my works via instinct and intuition rather than any intellectual reasoning. At times it almost seems as though the images select me. I paint what I love and I love the luscious curves and exaggerated hips of the female form. My works are a celebration of love and intimacy, and I endeavor to show sexuality in this light. I feel part of the historic tradition of erotica. I very much admire the work of Modigliani, Balthus, and Egon Schiele, as well as the Japanese Shunga artists of the late Edo period. In the contemporary context I feel a connection with the photographers Trevor Watson, Ellen von Unwerth, Eric Kroll, and Natacha Merritt, who work in the realm of the erotic.
I have reached a point in my painting where I am much more free with the paint on the canvas. It’s both a confidence and an intuitive thing. As a result my paintings seem more responsive and fluid, and this freedom translates to the canvas as lightness and sensuality. It’s an unconscious thing. I think this lightness is something that people react to when they see my painting. People tend to react to my work on an instinctive level, which is great because that’s how they are created. In my mind there is nothing more alluring than a woman who is both confident and comfortable with her body and sensuality.
Impasto has added a whole new dimension to my work, it’s brought it alive. When I do really fast impasto and let it dry there’s certain energy with it that you just can’t get with flat paint. The texture is frozen on the canvas capturing that energy forever. There’s a depth to my painting and a different energy to my work. Impasto gives people something to look at besides the image. Viewers want to reach out, touch, and explore my paintings. I love seeing this reaction to my work.
I don’t try to be politically correct and I don’t mind if people find my work too confronting. What is important to me is that my work provokes a reaction from the viewer (hopefully positive), because if the work fails to do this, then it’s just a picture…easily forgotten. To some degree I feel there has been a lightening up of society’s view of sexuality. For example you can go into almost any general bookshop and see sexually explicit material, something that wasn’t the case even ten years ago. There’s been a shift in the material available too, how it’s produced: less underground, more positive.
Naughty is fun. To paint the images I do I have to enjoy them. I love their sexiness and approach painting them in a fun and positive way. Much of the eroticism seen in my art comes from what is not there—from what is not explained and from the story that gets told in the mind of the viewer. I also like seeing how far I can push things—the layers of paint, the images I choose—and I like watching people’s reactions to new work.
Other people’s moralities are their responsibility, not mine.
