David Hardy: Artist
1966, Lambretta Special 125cc, fitted with a TS1 225cc kit & 35mm Mikuni Carburettor. Stripped & resprayed in Supertune Avanti racing colours with the help of Ron Moss who originally worked & rode for Supertune, 335 Brighton Road Croydon, and bought the company in 1969 and owns it till this day. 225cc leg shield & side panel badges, which proved to be impossible to source originals, are hand made by the artist himself, which where an original feature on an Arthur Francis ’S’ Type.
So that painter (and dedicated scooterist) David Hardy might be better understood, it would be instructive to know a little more about the history of London-based artists who have fled the capital in search of tranquillity and meaning. Since the mid-19th century small communities of artists have sought the ‘other Eden’ of which Shakespeare spoke in the located themselves in the Cotswolds (Morris and Rossetti, from 1871), at Newlyn (Forbes, from 1884), Ditchling (Gill, from 1907) and St Ives (Nicholson, Hepworth and Garbo, from 1928). Each produced something distinct after their self-imposed exile from the city, however, what they shared was an interest in the authenticity of the landscape and people found mending nets or working the land. When Hepworth arrived in Cornwall, she saw art all around her in the form of the hills, standing stones, giant beach pebbles and dry-stone walls. Dissatisfied with the aesthetic values bestowed upon him by his privileged upbringing, her partner Ben Nicholson discovered new ways of seeing the world, transfixed as he was by the naïve painting of local fisherman Alfred Wallis, and through whose eyes he rediscovered art.
In the early 1970s Peter Black and his then wife Jann Haworth were central in another migration from London known as the Brotherhood of Ruralists. The others in the group: David Inshaw, Ann and Graham Arnold and Annie and Graham Ovendon were scattered around the Westcountry, from Cornwall to Wiltshire, however regular meeting took place at Blake and Haworth’s home in the Somerset village of Wellow. In many ways, reviving the values of Rossetti, Ruskin and Morris the Ruralists seemed like an updated mash-up of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the Arts and Crafts movement, but when the newcomers added a sprinkle of London panache it all looked very contemporary and right for the times. Like the others before them, David and Lisa Hardy (also a potter and watercolourist of note) went west, but this time to the hills of South Wales, that separate the sea from the mountains. Like the Ruralists, they celebrated the local vernacular architecture and found inspiration in the rocks and streams as Barbara Hepworth did in West Penwith. David rides the lanes on his 1966 Special 125 (with a 225 rebore) and the higher trails on his 2017 Husqvarna 701 Enduro.
His approach to painting before he arrived in Wales was graphic with suggestions of St Ives stalwart Patrick Heron in the late 1960s. However, the blue mists of the surrounding environment have penetrated his psyche and clearly effects his hand as he applies paint to canvas.
To find out more about the work of David Hardy visit his Instagram site at: @mr.dhardy
