Profile
David Cottrell
2025
davidcottrell-art.co.uk
07508903488 / 07582595415 dcottrellart@yahhoo.co.uk
I am a painter. I also produce a great many drawings (mainly of the figure and ‘heads’) from which I work. These drawings are from ‘life’ though many are ‘experimental’ variations. I am a studio painter. I am also very much a ‘process painter’ in that I have a starting point and set a ‘process’ in motion and see where it will take me. Often, my paintings will diverge from original intentions. Almost all of the work I do is an evolution from what went before. I tend to work in series. All of my larger paintings are oil on canvas. ‘Mark making’ also features heavily in my process. At the present time, predominant sizes are 90cm square or 60cm sq. I do smaller paintings on panels. Drawings are usually A3 and are generally ‘mixed media’. Currently, black watercolour (undiluted) predominates.
I am very aware that there is content to what I do and that all the above (and much more) is simply a means of facilitating the emergence of this content. Over the last few years, the principle subject of my work has been the figure and ‘heads’. I see the process I engage in (which in itself continues to evolve) as a means of ‘conjuring up’ a ‘sense of the ‘real’. This for me entails bringing into being a sense of the transient, ‘half-seen’, ambiguous nature of reality and experience; an ‘instant in time’ made ‘concrete’ and credible. I seek a ‘credible imperfection’. We live in a world of doubt and contradictions where certainty lacks credibility.
Why this fascination with the transient should be important to me is a bit of a mystery. However, I do find beauty in the transient and the fleeting made tangible. I find such imagery relates strongly to the nature of perception and how I see things (both literally and philosophically). I believe in the ‘maxim; ‘There is no truth, only perception’.
I don’t see myself as a portraitist or as a ‘life’ painter. Rather, I see myself as an artist who attempts to portray and express the seemingly meaningful sensation of occupying and moving within our physical bodies and how that pertains to my perception of humanity”.
‘Foundation’ Art & Design (Leicester)
BA Fine Art (Falmouth
ATC (PGCE: Art Teachers Certificate / Brighton)
MFA (Master of Fine Art / Newcastle University).
OTHER SHORT ‘ART STUDY’ COURSES ABROAD AND IN THE UK:
1992 ‘European Art Study Course’ Prague … East Sussex Art Advisory Service.
1993 Hastings Museum. Museum Service Awareness Course.
1993 ‘European Art Study Course’ Amsterdam. East Sussex Art Advisory Service.
1993 ‘Sculpture Course’ Corsica Hall, Seaford. East Sussex Art Advisory Service.
1994 ‘European Art Study Course’ Barcelona. East Sussex Art Advisory Service.
1995 ‘Japanese Art’ Study Course. Victoria & Albert Museum: (Venue & organiser).
1995 ‘European Art Study Course ’ Bologna, Venice, Ravenna, Florence. . East Sussex Art Advisory Service.
1996 ‘Art Study Course’ New York U.S.A. East Sussex Art Advisory Service
1997 ‘Art Study Course: ’Moscow and St Petersburg. East Sussex Art and Museum Service.
2000 ‘Art Study Course’ New York USA. East Sussex Art & Museum Service.
Exhibitions Since moving to Cornwall in 2016
2016 to 2019 Meta Gallery, Penzance. (Gallery Artist).
2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022. ‘Bandroom’ drawing exhibitions, Redwing Gallery, Penzance
.2018 Breeze Art and Makers Fair, Penzance.
2018 Bath Art Fair.
2019 to 2021 Webbs Fine Art, London. (gallery Artist)
2021 The PZ 11 group at the PZ Gallery, Penzance.
2022 The PZ 11 group at The Crypt, St Ives.
2022 The ‘Penzance Studios’ group at The Crypt, St Ives.
2022 The ‘Penzance Studios’ group at the PZ Gallery, Penzance.
2022/23 (Dec/Jan) St Ives Society of Artists Christmas ‘Open’.
2023 (May/June) St Ives Society of Artists Spring Open’.
2023 (Jan/Feb) Penwith Society of Artists Associates Exhibition. Penwith Gallery, St Ives.
2023 (July/Aug) Penwith Society of Artists Associates Exhibition. Penwith Gallery, St Ives.
2023/24 (Nov/Jan) Penwith Society of Artists Associates Exhibition. Penwith Gallery, St Ives.
2024 (Feb /March) Penwith Society of Artists Associates Exhibition. Penwith Gallery, St Ives.
2023 (April) The ‘Penzance Studios’ group at the Daisy Lang Gallery, Penzance.
2023 (Aug) The ‘Penzance Studios’ group at Penznce School of Art.
2023 {Dec} Bosulval Studios ‘Xmas Fair’
2023 (July) The PZ 11 group at The Crypt, St Ives.
2024 (July) The PZ 11 group at The Crypt, St Ives.
2023/24 (Nov/Jan) St Ives Society of Artists Christmas ‘Open’.
2024 (May/June) St Ives Society of Artists Spring Open’.
2024 (July/Aug) Penwith Society of Artists Associates Exhibition, Penwith Gallery, St Ives.
2024 (May/June) Penzance Studios (group) Spring Open The Arts Hub, Penzance.
2024 (Nov) Penzance Studios (group) Winter Open The Arts Hub, Penzance.
2024 (Nov/Dec) Penwith Society of Artists Associates Exhibition, Penwith Gallery, St Ives.
2024/25 (Nov/Jan) St Ives Society of Artists Christmas ‘Open’.
2025 (Jan) The Art Hub, Wharfside Center, Penzance: With Phil Ward & John Garbutt.
2025 (feb) Penwith Society of Artists Associates Exhibition, Penwith Gallery, St Ives
2025 (April) Penzance Studios (group) Spring Open The Arts Hub, Penzance
2025 (May/June). St Ives Society of Artists ‘Spring Open’.
2025 (July) NSA: Newlyn Society of Artists. ‘Coast to Coast’. The Crypt Gallery, St Ives.
2025 (July/Aug) Penwith Society of Artists Associates Summer Exhibition, Penwith Gallery, St Ives.
2025 (Aug) Penzance Studios (group) The Art School. Penzance.
2025 (Oct/Nov) NSA:Newlyn Society of Artists. ‘Perspectives’. Tremenheere Gallery, Penzance.
2025/26 (Nov/Jan) St Ives Society of Artists Christmas ‘Open’.
2025/26 (Nov/Jan) Penwith Society of Artists Associates Exhibition, Penwith Gallery, St Ives.
Also:
OPEN STUDIOS CORNWALL
2017,2019,2022, 2023, 2024, 2025,
CORNWALL OPEN STUDIOS
2026.
Also: The ‘PZ.22’ Creat Art Trail
Penzance Festival of Art 2022.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS (Major Works).
Bedfordshire Education Service.
University Funding Council – Bristol.
Hatton Gallery Permanent Collection – University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
(Art Specific Only).
1977 David Murray Studentship, Royal Academy (Summer Vacation)
1978 Winner of the Painting Prize – Degree Shows – Falmouth
2005 ‘Regional Prize’ in Discerning Eye Competition/exhibition, Mall Galleries,
London.
