David Naseby (1937–2022) was born in England and studied in the United Kingdom before coming to Australia in 1953. He worked as a rouseabout and studied art in Queensland before moving to Sydney, where he worked in advertising. His first portrait commission came in 1982 from ad-man and entrepreneur John Singleton, for whom Naseby painted former Miss World Belinda Green, Singleton’s then wife. Naseby held his first solo exhibition in Sydney in 1998. In 1995 he became an Archibald Prize finalist for the first time with his portrait of poet Les Murray. That painting and Naseby's 1999 portrait of writer Bob Ellis (also an Archibald Prize finalist) were acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in 2001. Naseby's other portrait subjects include artists Adam Cullen and Kevin Connor, actor Max Cullen, cartoonist Bill Leak, former prime minister Sir John Gorton, rock legend Angry Anderson, golfer Greg Norman and footballer Sam Thaiday. His portrait of boxer Kostya Tszyu featured in the Sporting Archibald touring exhibition in 2000; and in 2014 he was a finalist for the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize. Also a landscape artist, Naseby was awarded a residency at Bundanon, Arthur Boyd's former home, in 2002; and he was in the running on multiple occasions for art prizes including the Mosman Art Prize, the Dobell Prize for Drawing, the Kedumba Drawing Award and the Wynne Prize. Naseby's works are held in private and corporate collections here and overseas and in those of public institutions such as the Museum of Australian Democracy and the State Library of New South Wales as well as the National Portrait Gallery.
