David Ardley grew up in California and began his professional career doing airbrushed designs on surfboards.
He now works with very high quality resin oils on a very smooth canvas applying paint in thin layers. His art has a very meditative feel through the use of vivid colours, rich textures and amazing use of light.
David's works are held in collections around the world.
Born in 1951 David Ardley was raised and educated on the California coastline. From a young age David began his love affair with the ocean, becoming a surfer and being drawn to the beauty of the sea.

As a teenager his artistic talents were stifled by months of repetitive colour charts in school, when all he wanted to do was break free and let his imagination go! But some of his training proved valuable as one of David’s outstanding traits in his art is his colour blending. After school he started specialising in airbrushed designs on surfboards and motorcycle parts and saved enough money to tour the South Pacific and fell in love with New Zealand. In 1974 he immigrated to New Zealand where he moved to Ninety-Mile Beach on the northern tip of New Zealand and started a family. Being surrounded by an inspiring, pristine, marine environment moved David to continue his artistic passion and he experimented with many painting techniques.

His work as a “realistic” painter was now evident. He used to do many still-life paintings, buying lots of fresh fruit to use for his work. For awhile he was heavily influenced by Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte and other surrealist painters. Often he included bones and other human body parts in his still-life works. One of David’s favourite paintings (which hangs in his own collection) is a very large erotic surrealist work depicting a dozen gorgeous female legs sprouting out of the earth and turning into huge hibiscus flowers with penises at their flower stamens.

As his art has improved and changed two things have always been apparent with his work- his desire and ability to paint water- and his strong sense of depth. Working with the highest quality resin oils on a very smooth canvas he applies paint in thin layers, or glazes, in a similar way to the “old masters”. Over the last few years his “underwater” (still-life like) paintings have become very popular, largely due to their meditative feeling, serenity, calmness and the use of vivid colours and unique perspectives.

David has used his long term partner Jo as a model in his new series of water nudes, called “Bathing Beauties”. These paintings are large nudes submerged in turquoise water and bathed in light. Another style of nudes is his Black and White series. These are large, modern, depictions of the female form showing David’s skill in blending subtle tones.

David has sold work that now hangs in collections all over the world, including New Zealand, Australia, California, New York, Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong-Kong, Holland, Germany and London. He now exhibits at; Art Of This World in Devonport, Auckland; Arts Desire in Warkworth, North Auckland and Corporate Art Centre on the Gold Coast, Queensland Australia.

Eternal Life Dyptich(2300 x 900mm)
Oil on Aluminium

New Day Rising (900 x 1150mm)
Oil on Aluminium