Devonshire's East Devon digital magazine November December 2018

Tuscany - Cherry Orchard in Evening Light at Strove 91 x 102 cm (36 x 40 ins)
Alan Cotton,
one of Britain’s
most distinctive
landscape artists,
has travelled to
many parts of the
globe to discover
new subjects for
his paintings.
His explorations have taken him from Morocco to
Tibet, where he went as Expedition Artist to Mount
Everest with Sir David Hempleman-Adams. As Tour
Artist, Alan also travelled with His Royal Highness
the Prince of Wales to Australia, New Zealand,
Sri Lanka and Fiji. When working in Transylvania,
paintings from which feature in this exhibition, he
was privileged to stay in The
Prince of Wales’ cottage.
Alan has produced paintings
from all these exotic places, but
it is to Provence in the South
of France and Tuscany and
Piemonte in Italy that he returns
again and again. Sometimes
film crews accompany him and
there have been a number of
television films of Alan working
in these regions. The first, “A
Step or Two Away the Picture
is Complete” for BBC saw Alan
working in his studio, along
the Otter Valley and in Brittany.
Two half hour programmes
called “Cotton on Canvas”,
Alan Cotton's
beautiful
Provence - Bonnieux From Tom
Stoppard's Garden in Lacoste
77 x 61 cm (30 x 24in)
landscapes
narrated by Hugh Scully, were made for ITV
and these was filmed amongst the hill towns of
Provence, the orchards of Tuscany and beside the
canals in Venice.
There have been two illustrated biographies by
Art Historian Jenny Pery “On a Knife Edge” and
“Giving Life A Shape” and a
new book “Drawn to Paint”,
currently in production, which
shows how his drawings form
the basis for his paintings, will
be launched at the Private View
of his London Exhibition with
David Messum in September
2019.
Alan is Hon. Professor of Arts
at the University of Bath and a
founder member and President
Emeritus of the South West
Academy. He also received an
Honorary Doctorate from the
University of Exeter for his “...
outstanding contribution to
the Arts”.
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