Sun God, Venice

ABSTRACT PAINTINGS

The acrylic abstract paintings are inspired by landscapes, cities, spaces, memories and the emotional power of colour and light. They are created by dragging and dripping the paint, as well as using the brush and contain many overlaid glazed areas where planes, levels, horizons and depths are combined to create an intense colour experience. These paintings are also evocative abstractions of place and contain visual symbols of landscape, reinforcing the idea that no abstract is completely removed from the external world. Like the figure paintings, they are both rhythmical in form and improvisational in style.

Their influences are very varied, some are based on the images of astronomy, others are about light and the subtle effects light has on our perception of the world and some are very particular landscapes.

They are generally grouped in series, each containing works on different themes.

Living in London the light of the city is very important to me, particulary the river light and its constantly shifting effect on the emotions : The London Light series is an attempt to express the revelation of light falling on buildings and water, revealing the light and dark history of this great city. “Thames Nocturne” was inspired by a particular river view towards Westminster Bridge with an oblique reference to the paintings of Whistler.

Turner was a distant influence on the Venice series. La Serenissima exudes magic everywhere you look and the three paintings “Venetian Gold”, “Sun God, Venice” and “The Golden Door” are evocations of its past splendours and its romantic influence on art and artists.

“Australian Earth, Forest and Sunrise” is from the Australian Earth series which was triggered by recent visits to that country, by travelling across its vast spaces and its extraordinary light, which proved a revelation to someone used to our more overcast skies.

“Aurora, Earthrise “ is from the Space series, which is directly influenced by recent photographic images from astronomy, in particular the Hubble telescope.

Images from space offer us a glimpse into other worlds which I find perfect vehicles for abstraction.

“The psychological power of colour….calls forth a vibration from the soul” Kandinsky

Agora Gallery , New York : Review : ”Sensual and elegant, Cottingham’s works indeed reveal the world – the everyday passage of time, the infallible cycle of days and nights – as a vision of the sublime in nature and in the creative spirit.  Abstract paintings with the rich hues of daybreaks and sunsets, lunar patterns and luminous reflections, Cottingham’s works are composed as strata of color, like the sedimentation of light or atmospheric landscapes.  Smoldering reds, iridescent blues, long shadows and bands of shimmering light stripe the intricate skies of Cottingham’s canvases”. 

The Golden Door, 2010

Forest and Sunrise, Australian Earth series, 2010

Thames Nocturne, Towards Westminster Bridge

Large Dancer 2007

THE DANCE PAINTINGS

These figurative based works are studies of dance, movement or gesture. Inspired by contemporary and classical dance, music, photography and sculpture. I work with the dancer in life size compositions in which we enter as viewers to move around in a virtual three dimensional space. Originally Inspired by Matisse and Degas, I became aware of my own need to animate the canvas and retain a sculptural quality. The paintings are worked up in layers of observed movement, trying to express the essence of the dance and the dancer. Very little is obscured, so that the progress of the painter and the dancer can be observed. They are painted from life, using the inspiration and styles of individual contemporary and classical dancers .These abstracted and complex figure paintings aim to celebrate the body and express movement of the human figure in its purist form.

I have always loved observing the dancer, the single figure in motion. After many years of drawing the figure I began to experiment by trying to capture something of the sensation of the dancer’s movement in space.
My initial attempts were in sculpture, using welded metal to express the dancers ability to escape gravity. The drawing of movement gradually became a vehicle for me to express two of the themes that I feel are important in figurative art: spontaneity and improvisation.
Music itself is also a very big influence on my work, both classical and contemporary. “Dance Suite” for instance was inspired by the music of Bach; the six solo Cello Suites. It is one of a series featuring particular dancers, in this case Giuliana, who beautiful captured the flowing style and stark emotions of these baroque dance pieces. It contains six main dance positions

A dancer once told me that the nearest she could get to describing the act of dancing was as if the air itself was solid and she moved into a space to cut through it and own it in her own way. I similarly use the space of the canvas as that solid air and try to give the viewer a sense of how a particular body moved within and occupied a particular space. From Degas through Rodin to Matisse and Pollock the dancer in art has influenced my  painting, in Pollock's case the artist himself became the dancer and that quicksilver approach to nuance of movement is one that I adopt, by  working very quickly in real-time.  The paintings and drawings, which precede them, are always works in progress, records of that spontaneity of expression. The brush becomes an extension of the body, a dancers limb, a fleeting moment captured but hopefully revealing of something that endures of the human form, forever in motion.

“Dance takes abstraction further. It has no physical form. It comes from what the dancers do…… it has no objective reality. Its reality is virtual not physical”   Candida Smith

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul”  Martha Graham

"Dancers" Rome Exhibiton Curator Text : Barbara Goebels-Cattaneo :

"Lost in an exhilarating choreography, David Cottingham’s dancers celebrate the joy of movement and rhythm, bending, swinging and turning their bodies skilfully, striking energetic and powerful poses, twirling in light and elegant moves. The effortless and smooth flow of gestures requires utter body control, a focussed concentration of force; practise and regular workout are preconditions to create an illusion of weightless floating in the air, leaving the ground and escaping gravity. Sometimes in flaming compositions worked up in successive layers, reflecting a whole sequence of progressing moves, sometimes in reduced studies of a single pose, the shape accentuated by colour: David Cottingham’s dancers are filling the canvas, conquering it by their continuous rhythmical steps and gestures, taking their places in space and time."

Dance Transitions 2008

Gallery 286 London March 2008

Giuliana Dancing, Salon Gallery, London 2006

Dance Suite : Giuliana Dancing at the Salon Gallery.

DRAWINGS and WORKS ON PAPER
These drawings are all done from life, in a wide range of styles and media, including line drawings in ink and chalk and studies in mixed media. They are mostly A1-size, on paper. Limited edition prints will become available in due course.

The drawings are divided into four groups: Dance, Portrait, Line and Mixed Media

Blue Dancer Series, Graphite and Acrylic Wash Drawing on Paper.

The on-line collections are selections of work in progress.

Please contact the artist for recent additions or to view the back catalogue of paintings and drawings.