Dave Pether was born in Southall, a large suburban town in West London, England, and lived and worked there for all his working life.  He went to Twickenham Tech Art College and contributed to the well-known OZ magazine, an independently published alternative/underground magazine associated with the international counterculture of the 1960s.  He was also a musician, and his band The Muleskinners were part of the early 1960’s art school R&B scene.   

     A Motorbike accident cut short his musical career, but after college he worked in an animation studio, and then joined Young Artists Agency and John Spencer before setting up his own illustration company “Dave Pether Illustration” in the 1970s.  He met his wife Helen while working in the animation studio; they married in 1981 and had two children, Sophie and Tom - and it is thanks to Sophie that I am able to offer so many of his memorable illustrations to you here.  

     Dave was very versatile and worked in a number of different genres,

including science fiction, fantasy, War/military, History, and Romance. 

He also did a number of commercial art projects, including album covers,

food packaging designs, marketing for pharmaceutical companies,

and product development for toys. 

     In the 1980's Dave moved into television and film work. 

He did many paintings used in titles and advertising breaks for films

shown on London Weekend Television (LWT).  He also produced storyboards

and character designs for companies developing projects for film and tv.  Dave also worked on a couple of British sports campaigns during the 1980's.  He produced limited edition sports prints for the British Olympics campaign for the 1980 Moscow Games, and designed a series of stamps planned to be issued for the Mexico 1986 World Cup.

      In the 1990's Dave started teaching art at Brunel University, located in the Uxbridge area of London,           England.  He loved teaching and worked there for 12  years. During this time he also moved into doing video game illustration, working for Psygnosis on the well-known Lemmings series of video games. He produced                                                   cover illustrations and character designs for the Lemmings and other Psygnosis g                                                  games - and became known for that work.  Now collectors have an opportunity                                                       to appreciate how diverse his talents were; dozens of paintings that spanned a                                                        a wide range of genres .  . . now considered "vintage" art, and highly collectible.