David Bushell

David Bushell is a painter, motorcyclist dog owner and sometime member of the Whitstable Dazzle. He plays double bass in The Art pop band Gum!

Based in Whitstable, Kent, his current practice explores perception and embodiment through an ongoing series of large-scale acrylic paintings. The work considers how relationships between colour, form, hue and tone can alter our sense of orientation, perceived tension and movement, and shape our felt sense of the image.The paintings occupy a space between seeing and experiencing, creating uncertainty.

Scale, structure and the relationships between forms act as a catalyst, drawing the viewer into the painting and inviting an encounter rather than a fixed interpretation.

‘This portrait marks a threshold between two lives. Based on a photograph taken before my mother left Hong Kong. The original, a late 1950’s black-and-white image is transformed into colour. Past and present occupy the same surface, held in tension rather than separation. Behind this transition lies the legacy of the second world war, Japanese occupation and loss; ahead, the possibility of a different future centred on her choosing to marry and the hope of spiritual nurture and family.

Presented as a distressed photograph, almost a museum artefact, the work explores the fragility of memory and the way images preserve, distort and reanimate the past. 

The figure is painted at half my mother’s height (4ft 11inches - 149 cm), reinforcing the relationship between time, presence and absence. The gold leaf lining the inner frame evokes a continuous thread of hope, connecting what has been lived through to the present.’

We are delighted to have David as part of our Contemporary Kent Artists exhibition at The Horsebridge Arts Gallery the 7th - 19th of October 2026.

You can find more out more about David and his work on his website