David Naseby was born in England and studied in the United Kingdom before coming to Australia in 1953. He worked as a rouseabout and studied at the Queensland Art Gallery before moving to Sydney, where he worked extensively in advertising. One of his first portrait commissions was of Belinda Green for John Singleton, and he has since painted many portraits on commission including two of Greg Norman.

He is represented in collections in Australia, the USA and the UK. He was a finalist in the Archibald Prizes of 1995, 1998 and 1999 for his portraits of Les Murray (twice) and Bob Ellis; the NPG acquired his portraits of Murray and Ellis in 2001. In 2002 he held an artist residency at Bundanon.