British landscape artists, David Smith was born in Thundersley, Benfleet, Essex in 1949. Of a modest family but having artistic talents in the form of his paternal grandfather, a larger than life character who in his early life, earned his living as a bare fist pugilist and sailed the world on ocean going liners as a printer, producing menus and other shipboard paraphemalia. Also a keen amateur artist teaching his grandson not only to defend himself but how to weald a paint brush, introducing David to painting and a fair measure of courage. For David, as his life progressed, needed much of the latter to achieve his ambition as a professional artist. School holidays were happily spent with his maternal grandparents in Derbyshire. A change from the rather bleak industrial landscape of his birthplace into the countryside where he was to become aware of its beauty, of undulating mountains, its tree-laden valleys, fast flowing rivers, and quiet twinkling streams. As he sat fishing, infused with spiritual awareness at the beauty that enveloped him and to where he was to return many years later as a fully-fledged artist to create some of his finest masterpieces. For even then, he could visualize, in his minds eye, the completed picture only lacking the skill to achieve the end result.