As an artist David Schofield plays with everyday locations, the omnipresent Scottish tenement building transformed into grand colosseums, the commuter masses into a sea of figures, narratives formed from a mass of people, the archetypal lushness of a meadow and the empty forest. However, within these comfortable stages the foreign or 'unreal' are often placed; candy striped lighthouses planted far from the sea, biplanes breaking free from their moorings, all which add to a specific sense of surrealism and foreboding danger.
The overarching themes in the work are the ideas of stability and safety and the idealised notions of the remote and rural. Narratives born of observations of people, places and situations all contribute to the paintings.
As an illustrator he has produced works for clients such as The Scotsman Newspaper, The Glasgow Herald, Macmillian Publishing, Adobe, The Bank of Scotland, The Leith Agency and Theatrum Botanicum.
In 1997 David was asked by the Open Eye Gallery in Edinburgh to have a solo show of his paintings which has led to many exhibitions throughout the United Kingdom with galleries such as John Martin, London, The Portal Gallery, London and The Medici Gallery, London
Since 1997 he has regularly exhibited work at The Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh and The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts and has been awarded the following awards from these bodies.
Latimer Award, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
The City of Glasgow Award, Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts
The David Cargill Award, Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts
The James Torrance Memorial Award, Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts
The N S Macfarlane Charitable Award, Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts
