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David Koster (1941 -44)
David Koster doesn't have to go further than the municipal park in Folkestone to find inspiration. He paints the daffodils, the lily pond, butterflies and anything else that catches his eye. He, too, produces handmade limited edition prints. He has a huge cast iron litho press in the basement studio of his house, but it is so heavy it is falling through the floorboards and he is frightened to use it in case it keeps on going.David is a founder member of the Society of Wildlife Artists and some of his paintings on Saga Rose show this side of his work. He loves painting fish, a passion he has had since childhood fishing expeditions to the ponds in Hampstead, North London. He especially likes painting Koi carp which appear mysteriously in his watercolours of lily ponds. He has spent hours sketching these handsome fish while leaning over the galvanised tanks of a carp dealer in Chatham. Of the five Saga Rose artists, David is probably the nearest to the common perception of what an artist might be. He seems slightly distracted when he talks, as if he is already planning his next painting. His wife Katherine is a stoical lassie from the Scottish Highlands. "I always ask her opinion about a painting", says David. "She is my public. I test things out on her."
David is now in his seventies, but the idea of retiring fills him with dread. "The thought of not doing anything is hell," he says. "Retirement doesn't come into the equation. I do and I don't enjoy painting. It can be an anxious business".
By Philip Dunn
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Reproduced with permission. Published in the June '98 edition of Saga