Born in 1944 David Watson continues to paint daily from his hometown of Middlesbrough.
For over half a century, the painter has captured the communities, characters and identity of his native Teesside, his paintings set against the changing fortunes and gradual decline of steel manufacturing in North East England.
With no formal training, Watson is an outsider who tells with authenticity, integrity and humour an honest working class narrative of past, present and future within post industrial Britain.
'I paint what I know, all I know, the people, the works, those that have gone and what is left now. I'll keep painting until the man upstairs calls time then I'm off"
Reflections on David Watson at 80
Approaching 80, Watson has devoted his entire life to visually documenting Teesside’s industrial past and those who helped these industries thrive. This rare and dogged dedication, on occasion perceived as ‘unfashionable’ by certain occupiers of the elitist contemporary art scene, must instead be wholly embraced and has earned Watson the title of a stalwart — if not an icon — of the Northern Art scene and Teesside itself.
-Lily Indira Kirkby