David Quinn is known for his small-scale, abstract paintings. These intimate pieces are inspired by book design, musical notation, signwriting, and the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi: the acceptance of transience and imperfection. Quinn's understated, minimal works may seem simple at first glance but on closer inspection you notice the carefully considered layers of the pages that make up his paintings. Characterised by repeated patterns of lines, dots, and grids, with muted colours and worn edges, they are suggestive of both passing time and old paperback books. Quinn compares his work to a form of poetry, or visual haiku, that reflects his deeper thought processes using lines instead of words.
I used to title my exhibitions and give individual pieces a number, but I feel now that each piece deserves its own name. I have recently started to name my paintings after ancient towns and cities that no longer exist. There is so little we know about the past, that in a way these places only really exist in our imagination.