English born and raised, David Dodsworth was educated at the Lancaster School of Arts and the Polytechnic in Sunderland, where he learned the fundamental technical skills of the draughtsman and printmaker.
He has always keenly pursued his own work while teaching art part-time and playing an integral part in the creation of the print studios at London Contemporary Art. He was influenced at an early age by religious paintings. Later, he became increasingly fascinated and pre-occupied with primitive mark making and hieroglyphics. References to abstract expressionism, primitivism, religion and technology are evident in his works, though he refused to describe himself as an abstract painter. His work is part of numerous corporate and private collections around the world.
'My work does not specifically or identifiably relate to visual facts or experiences, but to a reality which strikes a note directly into our nervous system- a note which transcends everyday pictorial reality but gives us, nonetheless, the sensation of understanding and feelings of recognition.'