ALAN COTTON | LIGHT IS LIFE
Alan Cotton, Co Kerry – The Last of the Herd, oil on canvas, 41 x 51 cm, courtesy David Messum Fine Art“The coast is a drama,” says landscapist Alan Cotton, “where the sea is constantly attacking the land: trying to destroy it. That dynamic… is like a life force.”
Brought up in a working-class home in Redditch, the acclaimed landscape painter didn’t even see the sea until he was 14. He was awakened to the world of art when, as a child, he was taken by an aunt to see an exhibition in Birmingham which included several Van Goghs. He soon took up painting himself; lacking enough money for equipment, his mother made him brushes with her own hair.
When he was just starting out as a full-time artist, living in St Briavel in the Forest of Dean, he received an unexpected studio visit from the revered Marxist critic John Berger, arranged by the local doctor. It so happened that Cotton had been experimenting with using a palette knife on a couple of canvases, and Berger encouraged him to continue with this practice. He has hardly used a paintbrush since. And the textured impasto effect he achieves as a result has become the foundation of his inimitable style.
Another fortuitous meeting was with the dealer and gallerist David Messum, with whom Cotton has since held a remarkable 27 exhibitions. The two soon became great friends, and Messum often accompanies the painter on field trips.
And there have been plenty of them recently, as we can see from his latest show (Messum’s, September 7 – 30) which takes in the cherry trees and hilltop towns of Provence, the vineyards and mountain ridges of Piemonte, the pregnant clouds and dry-stone walls of Western Ireland, the rippling reflections of Venice, and, of course, the rocky shores of Devon, where the artist lives and works.
Whether he’s chasing it in County Kerry, or being saturated by it in the South of France, a common factor in all these paintings is the Cotton’s ability to capture the prevailing light, casting a unique mood onto each canvas. “Light is always present,” he says, “it’s what unifies the subject.”
David Messum will be at Stand 30 of British Art Fair, showing work by Annie Tempest, John Miller, Miles Richmond, Peter Prendergast, Mary Newcomb, Rose Hilton, Dominic Welch, Simon Carter, Ken Smith, Benedict Rubbra, Jake Attree, Michael Forster, Jeremy Annear, William Booker and Jean-Marie Toulgouat.