Abstract Paintings

The abstract paintings are inspired by landscapes, cities, spaces, memories and the emotional power of colour and light. They hover between the worlds of abstraction and representation.

The paintings 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.

”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”.  New York Agora Galleryry Review