Art Blog
David Cottingham Latest News and Blog
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...
Joie de Vivre , My Week in View
More galleries open every week in London, which must now rival any city in the world for the variety of shows on offer. It is always exciting to turn a corner and find a new art space awaiting. The art scene in London is in some respects so diverse now that it can...
Le Sacre
My Week in View: A great show at Christies in Mayfair of British Pop Art, where the 1960's spring to life with early Hockney's and Blake's looking fresh as paint, along with the other stars like Allen Jones who still shine brightly and some who have now faded from...
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...
Joie de Vivre , My Week in View
More galleries open every week in London, which must now rival any city in the world for the variety of shows on offer. It is always exciting to turn a corner and find a new art space awaiting. The art scene in London is in some respects so diverse now that it can...
Le Sacre
My Week in View: A great show at Christies in Mayfair of British Pop Art, where the 1960's spring to life with early Hockney's and Blake's looking fresh as paint, along with the other stars like Allen Jones who still shine brightly and some who have now faded from...
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...
Meeting in the Park : My Week in View
In two weeks I begin my 3rd annual show at the Ice House Gallery in London’s Holland Park. It is a venue I have come to love, one where I can fully interact with all the wonderful, interesting and sometimes eccentric people who visit the show. For many it is in their...
High Clouds : My Week in View
This week the wonderful warm weather has inspired a painting and a poem. I am also busy preparing new work for my show in Holland Park in August, where you can see this piece amongst a lot of new work. Details to follow next week. High Clouds in early light...