After working in engineering and the police service for nearly 40 years, David Hemsley, was able to fulfil an ambition he had held for many years – to study and work as a visual artist.
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David was born in Bradford and after leaving school become an engineering apprentice at English Electric at Thornbury. After leaving engineering he joined the Bradford City Police and served for 30 years until his retirement.
He was then free to pursue a long-held ambition. He joined and completed an Art Foundation Course at Bradford College, Art Department, which led to a degree course in art and design at the College. He graduated with a BA Art & Design in 1996 and then worked at the Chapel Grange Special School, Rhodesway, Bradford, as a teacher using art as a teaching aid and form of communication with the children. He was at Chapel Grange for nearly ten years, but at the same time he was developing and building his own art practice. He said:
I have been an artist all my life. It is a necessity for me to paint, and I do it selfishly because I love to create. My style of work has changed very little over the years. The shape and form of nature is the vein throughout my work. Many of my pieces include a physical form to represent our part in nature’s pattern.
Dancing Genes
Dance to the Music of Time
Blind Date.
He’s my Brother.
