Dan Davis creates paintings that are modest in size and designed to hang on a wall. His preferred medium is oil on primed boards.

He procures pre-cut wooden panels and administers six layers of various acrylic primers; he then sandpapers this veneer to get a smooth finish. For plein air he applies a layer of Thixotropic Alkyd primer, which produces a surface with extra smoothness. When painting in situ, his substrate is placed upon an opened Pochade box, which in turn is fixed to a tripod. For studio artwork, he paints traditionally placing a board or canvas on an easel using an artists' pallet.

Dan has split his practice into two ways of working. In summer he likes to paint outside directly from life. These plein air investigations are traditional representations of the environment in which he lives, which can be sold and enjoyed in their own right or used as a reference for larger canvases. In winter and bad weather, he takes these opportunities to work in the atelier, to develop ideas contained within a world of whimsical pop-surrealism with an added proclivity towards puerile sentiment. This combination gives him constant involvement, improves drawing, composition, manipulation of paint, observation, and management of time.

Davis was born in Wandsworth in the early 1960s and has lived and worked in London ever since. He was awarded a first, after a four-year diploma in art and design at Richmond upon Thames College and graduated from St Martins School of art (Covent Garden), completing a one year post-graduate course in Advanced Illustration. During his career in illustration, he won the Beresford Sherman award for best unpublished work in 1989 and runner up for the Benson & Hedges Gold award in 1990, publications that employed him include, Butterworths Publishing, Director Magazine, Polydor Music, The Times Newspaper, Tatler Magazine, The Observer Magazine, The New Scientist and many more...

Dan presently works as a fine artist, mainly painting and has a studio in Earlsfield. He has exhibited in many gallery open calls and competitions, The Royal Scottish Academy, The Royal Ulster Academy, the Southwark Park Galleries, Mall Galleries, Creekside open, INGDiscerning eye 2020, and Studio 1.1 Gallery.