David Rusbatch

“Most of the paintings were done after the end of a relationship. I should’ve called the exhibition ‘heartbreaker’… I escaped to the Yorkshire Dales and found solace. I thought a lot about nature; its scale and its power. How it can unify but how it can isolate, all in the blink of an eye… You don’t want to sleep in case you miss a bit…”

RedHouse Originals Gallery is delighted to announce I Used To Sleep At Night; a new exhibition by Leeds-based artist David Rusbatch. The collection will go on display in Harrogate from 24th June – 23rd July 2016.

As well as showcasing Rusbatch’s hallmark portrait style the exhibition sees the artist venture into a new form of landscape painting. Multiple layers of oil paint, fluorescent light gels, collage and heavy gloss varnishes convene on cavernous black backgrounds, with different viewpoints and overlapping planes hinting at an almost cubist approach.

Rusbatch: “We have started to call them the ‘neo-landscape paintings’. I spent a lot of time in Malham so several pictures were directly inspired by days and nights spent up there… It was an escape, but not without an edge. When you are in the woods and dusk falls it transforms the landscape and the solace is soon replaced by fear and utter isolation…”

This is the first exhibition since the 2014 show Lost & Found, which led to plaudits from the likes of Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim) and Maxi Jazz (Faithless). Rusbatch is in the fortunate position that there is now a waiting list for his paintings and it is expected that this latest installment will not disappoint his growing army of collectors and admirers.