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david parfitt

1. Balcony and Brentford oil on board 33 x 39 cms 13 x 15 3⁄8 ins

I find it difficult to describe David Parfitt’s pictures without succumbing to metaphor, if only because they often feature bridges, specifically Kew Railway Bridge, which literally runs past his studio window. He began painting the bridge around 1980, when he moved with his wife Sara to Strand-on-the-Green in West London, on a stretch of the Thames where the river is still tidal. In fact, since their Georgian house is situated almost directly beneath it, the bridge is not so much a local landmark as an entity; it is practically their neighbour.

“I can’t get away from it. In fact, the first thing I do every morning is look under it to see what the river is doing”, he says. His fascination with the bridge continues a tradition in British art that extends from Turner to Whistler and directly influenced Pissarro, Sisley and Monet. Its appeal to his imagination is matched by his belief that our

aggressively changing world can still arrest and reward our attention if only we open our eyes to it. “I think that’s something people often overlook about the Impressionists: just how aware they were of industry,” he says, standing in his studio as a passing train rattles the window.

He has a point: in France, Impressionism developed alongside the expansion of the railway system. Moreover, when Manet, Monet, Sisley, Pissarro and Caillebotte (whose work Parfitt’s parallels in several ways) were painting, France was recovering from a disastrous war with Prussia, which its leaders entered deliberately in an attempt to resolve political disunity. Their failure brought civil war, but also forced the French to reform their educational system, to finally let go of their royal past and, eventually, to look to industry and colonial expansion as a way to rebuild their national identity.

Never the same river twiceNo man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man. (Heraclitus)

His typical working day (depending on weather and tidal conditions) could begin by painting a series of oil sketches with no under-drawing. Having established his focal point, he deftly trowels in his strongest, most resonant forms with a painting knife, before even picking up a brush. He then introduces modulations and counterpoints of colour and form to achieve his most immediate effects. Sometimes, he uses the horizontal axes of the railway bridge and the piers downriver as almost cinematic framing devices. This ‘cropping’ effect, his editing of elements (such as lampposts and trees) and slight topographical modifications draw attention to his deviation from visual reality, but also show how he uses abstraction to heighten atmosphere: this is probably the most impressionistic aspect of his technique and style.

While he can paint several pictures in the course of a single day as finished works in their own right, he uses others as source material for larger canvases.

Parfitt’s full biography is included in his CV herein; however, one point bears repeating: his student sketchbooks reveal an instinctive eye for industrial structures, their potential for abstraction and the effect exercised upon them by weather conditions. His earliest sketches show actively detailed studies of the local markets (fig. 2), his neighbours, family and friends. Drawn in pencil, biro, felt-tip (clearly whatever he could get his hands on) these sketches show an ability to find beauty even on his own doorstep: in clotheslined gardens meeting back alleys bristling with aerials, and abandoned buildings propped up behind patch-work corrugated fronts. His studies demonstrate an innate grasp of the visual possibilities in structures often overlooked or ignored, like pitheads, warehouses and railway bridges.

Fig. 2. Newport Market, 1960 © David Parfitt Photograph by Jack Sheppard

3. Reading on the Balcony oil on board 36 x 46 cms 141⁄8 x 181⁄8 ins

5. Trees and Piers oil on board 17 x 20 cms 65⁄8 x 8 ins

6. Grey and Green oil on board 17 x 20 cms 65⁄8 x 8 ins

7. Piers and Shadow oil on board 17 x 20 cms 65⁄8 x 8 ins

8. Sculler and Piers oil on board 17 x 20 cms 65⁄8 x 8 ins

9. Sun and Steel oil on canvas 76 x 61 cms 297⁄8 x 23 7⁄8 ins

44. Island at Sundown oil on board 17 x 20 cms 65⁄8 x 77⁄8 ins

45. Evening Island oil on board 17 x 20 cms 65⁄8 x 8 ins

46. Island at Sundown oil on canvas 119 x 99 cms 47 x 39 ins