David Woodings  is a photo-realist painter whose work is typical of the American East Coast artists, and reveals the influence of an exhibition, American Photo Realism which he saw in his final year of study at Elam School of Fine Art in 1978. Although taught and influenced by Dn Binney, Robert Ellis and Garth Tapper at Elam, his work has remained linked to this American movement, with a particular interest in realist and social realist concerns. His interest in the unpopulated landscape, alludes to artists such as McCahon and Fomison with a similar commitment to the human condition and spirituality.

Over the past twenty years he has worked as both an artist and as a gallery director and administrator at the Waikato Museum of Art and the Southland Art Gallery.  In 2005 he returned to painting fulltime. His current work maintains his interest in the relationship of arcade machines to architectural spaces. He notes that ‘The works bring a silence to an otherwise bustling mall environment and highlight the banality of form and site.’ Woodings has work in numerous private and public collections, including  Waikato University, Waikato Polytechnic, Waikato District Council and Hamilton High Court collections.