David Goatley spent the first 38 years of his life in the London area, where he was born in 1954 and initially gained interest in portraiture at fifteen. Goatley went to the London Camberwell School of Art initially with the intent to study portraiture, but it was considered unfashionable at the time due to the emergence of camera technology, and after trying his hand at abstract expressionism, lost his spark and instead pursued a career in advertising for the next sixteen years.
Despite this, he never lost his desire to pursue portraiture, and after a realization that he could still pursue a career as a painter, he quit his job, sold his house, and moved to Canada to start a new life and a family in 1992.
Goatley has made a name for himself as one of the most famous portrait artists in North America and has travelled across the world and painted commissions for many big-name clients, such as Kim Campbell: Canada’s first female prime minister, the Maharajah of Jaipur, as well as several other government officials and a number of university presidents.
He has won many awards as well, such as a lifetime achievement award from the Federation of Canadian Artists, but what matters most to him is his legacy. He is most honoured by the fact that his work hangs in parliaments, museums, and universities, where they will be for generations to come.
Even as his career has progressed, he has always been most attracted to people and their stories. He hopes to capture each individual’s story within each portrait, as well as provide his own commentary within the piece, even within formal portrait work.
Some of his favourite works have been those in which he can seek the subject out himself, which he often uses as avenues for political commentary on British colonialism and its effects, a subject he feels a personal connection with.
Goatley has done many portraits in India in order to bring attention to class inequality, painting one of the wealthiest men as well as some of the poorest in the world. He wants his audience to relate to his subjects, and to see them all as deserving of having their story be told.
In the future, Goatley hopes to work more with local first nations communities, which has been a group of interest to him ever since his arrival to Canada, as he knew little about indigenous history. He has worked with the Kitasoo/Xai’Xais nation extensively, having done a portrait of Hereditary Chief Charlie Mason, which is featured in their museum. He finds working with indigenous nations a valuable learning experience which he hopes to share with his art.