All In a Relaxing Week's Work
The Sydney Morning Herald Wednesday January 2, 2008
Louise Schwartzkoff
David Bromley is a self-confessed 'wannabe bohemian'. he rejects the nine-to-five lifestyle, makes his living with paint tubes and canvas, and is always on the move. Novertheless, he sees himself as a responsible conservative who has to cultivate his eccentricities.
'Bohemia doesn't come too easily to me beacuse I'm a compulsive worker', he says. 'I'm quite obsessive about the amount of time I sepnd in my creative world. I find work more relaxing than relaxing.'
His work ethic shows in his prolific output. In the past 20 years he has had more than 40 solo exhibitions. His paintings, sculptures and prints can be found in collections across Asia, South Africa, the US, Europe, Russia and Australia. While forging a reputation as one of Australia's most collectible artists, he has found time to open a chain of antique furniture shops and indulge his passion for restoring old stone buildings.
'I don't believe in working from nine-to-five, but from 10-to-three there's a lot of time to explore different part of your life', he says. 'I look for obsessions in different areas to lose myself in. It bemuses me when people dedicate themselves to one kind of work - there's enough time to enjoy it all.'
The works in his exhibition, 'A Week Of Sundays', are typically eclectic. His famous Boy's Own adventure-themed paintings jostle for prominence with a series of celebrity nudes. Thrown into the mix are prints, embroideries and bronze sculptures. The wide-eyed boys in sailor suits might seem at odds with the naked beauties, including the models Megan Gale and Cheyenne Tozzi, but for Bromley there is a connection between the two.
'There's a certain innocence in the women I paint. I don't see them as sexual or provocative. There's a gentleness about them that's associated with coming of age. As for the children, perhaps in some ways adolescence is a more knowing time than adulthood.'
His best explanation for the contrasting images is that he felt like painting in different stryles in the lead-up to the show. He has little patience for artistic abstractions, preferring 'a more decorative approach'.
'I can't see the satisfaction in struggling to come up with a clever idea, so I've gone with my heart and done something a bit more sentimental. I think beauty is a serious issue in the world that seems to have experienced a loss of innocence.
'Rather than immerse myself in pain and difficulties ... I want to be the bringer of a more gentle reality.'