Alan has been a central figure in the arts for many years and has worked tirelessly throughout that time. He has served on the board of the Exeter and Devon Arts Centre, and played a pivotal role in raising lottery funding to develop the Exeter Phoenix Arts Venue. Alan sat on the Fine Art Committee of the University of Exeter, as well as supporting other arts organisations as President or Patron. For ten years Alan worked with the Arts Department of the University of Bath developing their new arts complex and he is now their first Honorary Professor of Arts. He has received Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of both Exeter and Bath. Alan founded the South West Academy at the start of the Millennium which now has it’s permanent home at Kennaway House in Sidmouth. Alan Cotton has been represented internationally by David Messum for over 30 years.
To view all available paintings by Alan Cotton, CLICK HERE to visit the Messum's website and to discuss availability, contact the London gallery on 020 72874448.
We continue to celebrate the long relationship between David Messum and Alan Cotton. A recent exhibition was curated at David Messum Fine Art this year to look at the breadth and diversity of Alan's work. To view the works please CLICK HERE. To mark the event, a short film was produced as Alan discussed the paintings selected for the show and talked about his long history with the firm with David Messum. To watch the film, CLICK HERE.
“Alan’s painted marks are instantly recognisable. Applied with painting knives, either in vigorous sweeps or more delicate touches, they synthesise the characteristic qualities of rocks, clouds, waves, and water, balancing hard against soft, rough against smooth. The heavy impasto of juicy paint creates its own dynamic, the knife-edge marks standing out from the canvas and casting tiny shadows. Sometimes the paint is scraped away, revealing the bright underpaint when a particular passage needs it. Fixing the initial composition is the most cerebral part of the creative process. Many of the paintings are made on a square canvas, compositionally more exacting but when resolved extremely visually satisfying.”
Jenny Pery – curator and art historian
Alan Cotton’s relationship with oil paint and his understanding of the mediums' allure, are the key to his immediately recognisable and internationally sought-after work. His appreciation and impasto technique with oils translates into assertively textured landscapes that join impasto with atmospheric perspective. Executed in high colour keys, these paintings retain a purity of pigment that is exceptionally difficult to retain in oil.
In 2005, he accompanied His Royal Highness King Charles III - then The Prince of Wales - to Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji as his Tour Artist. In 2009, he was nominated as an icon by the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Committee. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in 2006 by the University of Exeter for his outstanding contribution to the arts and was later appointed Hon. Professor of Arts at the University of Bath.
Cotton was brought up in Redditch, Worcestershire and undertook his art studies at Ruskin Hall, Bournville School of Art, Birmingham College of Art, Birmingham University and at the University of Exeter. He has channelled his success into many charitable works, including his 2013 Art for Life Auction for the Children’s Hospice South West.
To view all available work by Alan Cotton, please visit www.messums.com
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