Art Blog
David Cottingham Latest News and Blog
Abstract : My Week in View
Everything comes around they say and art movements like fashion can also have a cyclical nature. One day the zeitgeist is just ready to understand or revisit ideas. Abstract painting, once the centre of the storm in the post-war art world is making something of a...
Life Class : My Week in View
I was taken by friends to the play Calendar Girls this week and in the play the characters have to be semi-naked on stage, which is very brave of the actors, as is all performance in public that calls for revealing the unclothed body. Kenneth Clark wrote brilliantly...
Blue : My Week in View
Blue is the colour of the gods. Lapis lazuli a semi precious stone, mined since earliest times in China and ground to become Ultra Marine, the finest of Blue pigments, was once so rare that only the most famous artists could afford to use it. Blue is the perceived...
Rococo : My Week In View
I am enjoying the new series on Rococo Art by Waldemar Januszczak. As a lover of the Baroque and the Renaissance, the Rococo is a movement I have often overlooked. At first sight it's over-ornate extremes alienate it from the modern aesthetic but the...
Let there be Light : My Week in View
Light is the greatest mystery in the universe. We only perceive the world because of light. Painting is captured light, Turner in particular understood this well and the British have a singular obsession with the fleeting light that is so precious in the long darkness...
A Life on Paper : My Week in View
I am reading Martin Gayford’s wonderful biography of Michelangelo, “His Epic Life” in it he talks about the importance of paper as a catalyst in the birth of the Renaissance. An earlier biographer had also referred to this artist's life as a "Life lived on Paper", as...
The Poetry of Paint : My Year in View
A gift this Christmas offered me a wonderful quote from the French painter Vuillard: "Who speaks of art speaks of poetry. There is no art without a poetic aim. Theres is a species of emotion particular to painting. There is an effect that results from a certain...
Solstice : My Week in View
The year comes to an end soon and in the northern hemisphere the Winter Solstice is approaching. From pre-historic times this turning of the year has been celebrated and worshipped in many ways. In ancient history the early Romans used it for their Bacchanalian...
Soul Man : My Week in View
In this week of my birthday I have been enjoying music and art in equal measure, they both get to the heart of our emotional language of truth, those unspoken emotions that express our innermost feelings and thoughts. Inspiration for my Dance Drawings and Paintings...
Plus Ca Change : My week in view
Cork street is under threat from developers, in a long running fight to save this bastion of British art, it is now coming to terms with change. In many ways London has had a stable designate art area for longer than New York, which has seen many shifts from Soho to...
A Year in View
Thank you to you all for your support and interest in my work this year. It has been a very busy, emotional and creative year for me, ending with a successful and very well received show at the Calken Gallery. It was particularly enjoyable to work with Vanessa Clark...
November 2014 Exhibition : “poetic liberation of the spirit”
Vanessa Clark presents: "poetic liberation of the spirit" New Paintings on Canvas and Works on Paper by David Cottingham. Including the launch of the "Broken Hearts" Series. Hosted and Curated by Vanessa Clark for VC Art Exhibition Dates : 19th-25th November Preview...
Its Only Words : My Week in View
Talking about art is often ironic, the work should really speak for itself, or there are two distinct voices going on at the same time which is one original meaning of irony. This week I gave a short talk on my work and then took questions. I am always fascinated to...
Autumnal : My Week in View
The colours are shifting, autumn is in the air, light is lower and golden, my favourite time of the year is here! This week I am showing a painting in a group show in Chelsea organised by the Riverside Art Group. The RIver Thames is a constant theme in my abstract...
Blue for You : My Week in View
Blue is the colour of love, that’s my view. It is the colour of our soulful life, the sky, the sea, the blues are all around us. In art it all began with Lapiz Lazullii, a very rare semi precious mineral. During the middle ages and early Renaissance, the Ultramarine...
Joie de Vivre : My Week in View
After a show I always take stock and reflect on its reception, the people I met along the way and the conversation that ensued. This year we had an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the work and also met so many fabulous folk. It is the unexpected encounters and...