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Maurice Cockrill RA, RCA
Exhibition of Recent Paintings
15th May - 5th June 2004
| Born in Hartlepool
in 1936, Cockrill was raised in Wales and attended Wrexham
College of Art. A long and illustrious career that has seen
the artist exhibit around the globe for 3 decades seems not
to have abated as he continues to explore and re-invent his
highly individual and sophisticated style of abstract painting.
In 1997, he opened a second
studio in the heart of the Conwy valley form which he has
recently produced a remarkable series of paintings 'en plein
air'. The challenge was to take his often giant canvases
and oil paint outdoors and capture the view time and again
as it shifted and metamorphosed before his very eyes. The
resulting brooding works hover between figuration and abstraction.
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| "The anatomy
of the landscape - the river estuary, fields and woods, clouds,
hills and mountains beyond is forever in flux, due not simply
to the capriciousness of light and weather, but also in regard
to what I, the artist, bring to it and hope to find there.
These pictures are the landscape transfigured - separate utterances,
complete-in-themselves although partial, that grope towards
an understanding and expression of the spirit of this piece
of the world that has held poetic meaning for me for over
half a century". |
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This exhibition
features paintings he has made over the past four years.
Many were completed outdoors, others such as work from the
"Bridge Cycle" are more planned, more cerebral,
and were painted in his London Studio.
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His commitment
to painting, with the notion that skill and hard work
are as vital an element in his work as any, puts him at
odds with the current avant garde who prefer installations
and film. This is not to say he remains trapped in a particular
style or idiom. Conversely, as this exhibition demonstrates,
he is able to continually push the limit of what paint
can do and what he can achieve.
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