David Foster

My journey into art has come from a career in Architecture. My love of technical drawing has matured from using just an ink pen and stippling to create light and shadow with dots of ink to now more excitingly using a hammer and nails.
I have always been fascinated with how little information the brain needs to interpret a picture and love the simplicity of a picture made up from just dots.
I started experimenting about 8 years ago, using nails instead of ink to make the dots. My first nail picture was titled ‘Elephant on a Bed of Nails’, which featured in an ITV architectural programme. As the technique seemed to work, I followed it up with the work ‘Liver Building Nailed’ which was exhibited in the Liverpool Art Fair.
Based in Newton-le-Willows, my break came after winning the Warrington Contemporary Art Competition in 2012 with ‘Lashes and Nails’, the prize being to hold my first solo exhibition ‘Nailed It’ in 2013. This was so successful that the Gallery continued my Exhibition for a further month.
Since then I have had successful solo exhibitions in various galleries in the UK, selling over 50 pieces worldwide. I have completed many personal and business commissions, clients including Nissan USA, SKY Sports, Carragher’s Bar New York and Hotel TIA Liverpool.
The whole process thrills me, taking just a hammer and a box of nails and arranging them into a piece of art. My work is based initially on a photograph which I painstakingly reproduce by stippling with an ink pen. The inked drawing is then enlarged to mark out where the nails go and then the nailing begins….. many thousands of nails later I have the finished piece. It is very tactile art and the viewer will find it hard not to touch the work.
My technique has evolved and developed over time, I now use tiny nails which enable the viewer to see and interpret the work more closely. I have nailed over one million nails so far in my work. I have introduced glass beads in some of my work to bring selective colour and sparkle.