David John More was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1947. His family moved to Canada the following year, eventually settling in Red Deer, Alberta. Growing up in a community interlaced with forests and parks had a profound effect on shaping his artistic vision later in life.

In 1968 he enrolled at the Alberta College of Art (now ACAD) and in 1972 graduated with awards and scholarships. He worked as an art history researcher, interviewing and recording famous artists of Alberta’s formative years, including Janet Mitchell, Marion and Jim Nicoll, Illingworth Kerr, and Wes Irwin, to name a few. In 1973 David worked as a medical graphics artist for the new Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary. 1974 saw him receive a Canada Council grant to create images inspired by historical remnants of coal mining in the Crowsnest Pass of Southern Alberta. The following year he was invited to instruct drawing, design and painting at the Alberta College of Art. He taught at ACA from 1975 till 1978.

In the fall of 1978 David left teaching to devote his full energy to the creation of art, and so began a productive process that continues to this day. David More has since become known across Canada as a painter, illustrator/author, and muralist. His images of the Canadian landscape range from Vancouver Island, through Alberta to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Many of his landscape themes have evolved around climatic change. An exhibition of his images titled Forest – Fade to Silent co-produced by Paul Kuhn Galleries and the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies dealt with the theme of acid rain in the forests of New Brunswick. This national museums exhibition toured to 10 galleries across Canada from 1990 to 1993.

A body of work under the title Garden Ceremony began to take shape in 1977. The images combine meditative reflections inspired by journeys in Canada and distant lands from Brazil to France, Poland, England, Scotland, America, Trinidad and India. In a 2012 retrospective of The Garden Ceremony curated by Mary-Beth Laviolette, the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery exhibited 16 major pieces dating from 1977 to 2009.

While the Garden Ceremony continues its prevalence in More’s imagery, he has been also working with the figure in several exploratory contexts over the past decades.

David More’s paintings and mixed media drawings are in many private, corporate and institutional collections in Canada, the United States, and abroad. In 1993 the University of Calgary presented one of his paintings to Mikhail Gorbachev, the former President of the Soviet Union.

In the world of book publishing, David has collaborated with writers as diverse as humourist Eric Nicol (seven books of satire) and Rudy Wiebe (young readers).

David More’s murals based on historical themes are found from Chemainus on Vancouver Island to Welland, Ontario and numerous locations in Alberta.

In 1984 he and his wife Yvette Brideau returned to Red Deer and in 1986 David was invited to be a part-time instructor in the Visual Art Department of Red Deer College, allowing him the opportunity to maintain his full studio activity.

In 1994 David and his wife Yvette Brideau moved to Benalto west of Red Deer where they have established their studio and garden.