"Since I stopped realistic painting and printmaking in lhe late 1950’s I have tried to be, simply, a creative artist. By creative, I mean that in whatever medium I am working, the materials involved lead me to the finished work. If a work is successful, it has to satisfy me based on my experience and taste, developed as a student, teacher, and as an active artist. When a work is finished, it should speak further to my imagination and I hope will stir the minds of onlookers to a creative experience of their own. I would like to think that my work in any medium, particularly my "naillies" are objects for contemplation."

(David Partridge, 1998)

David Partridge was born in Akron, Ohio, in 1919, and studied geology, paleontology and art at the University of Toronto. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts in 1941, he joined the RCAF and became a flying instructor until the end of the war. After the war, Partridge taught at Ridley College in St. Catherines, while continuing his art studies at such places as the Art Students League in New York. A British Council Scholarship took him to the Slade School of Art in London, England, after which he returned to Canada and teaching.

In 1956, Partridge returned to Europe to study print-making at Atelier 17 in Paris. There, he was inspired by the work of Zoltan Kemeny, a Hungarian artist who worked in metal. After living and working in England until 1958, Partridge moved to Ottawa. A solo show of watercolours, oils and engravings was held in 1959, and his work was selected for the Third Biennial Exhibition of Canadian Art. However, Kemeny’s influence had by this time led to Partridge’s experiments with nail art. By 1960, he had produced more than a dozen of these works, and eventually abandoned his abstract paintings for his "naillies", which led to regular exhibitions and international renown, and which he continues to create to this day.

Nail sculptures by Partridge can be found in the Tate Gallery, London, England, the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Westminster Cathedral, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and the Gallery of New South Wales in Sidney, Australia. The Library of Congress and the Victoria and Albert Museum both have Partridge prints. Among his major commissioned works are sculptures in York University, Toronto City Hall, Windsor Art Gallery and Canada’s Capital Congress Centre in Ottawa.

David Partridge lives in Toronto.