David Mankin is an artist living and working in west Cornwall. He has exhibited successfully with a London gallery, and has shown regularly at key London art fairs. His work is held in both private and corporate collections.

“My abstract paintings reflect the experience of being in the landscape, more of a memory, a personal connection or visceral response rather than a direct representation. The forms, colours and textures, and the ever-changing natural beauty can often evoke a deep emotional response. 

My practice is largely intuitive; the act of painting starts a process of discovering unintended connections and relationships. Working with mixed media, multiple layers of paint build up.  A lexicon of marks and sgraffito techniques intervene to create a surface that is textured and alive. Through an intensely physical process of obliteration and excavation, formal qualities of colour, shape and composition are established.”  To quote Matisse “I want to reach that state of condensation of sensations which constitutes a picture”

David’s abstract paintings not only draw inspiration from the dramatic Cornish coastline; the wild, empty moors; the big skies; but also the raw, physical elements of the landscape including the rocky outcrops; beach boulders; storm debris; winding farm tracks; surging seas and the ancient fields bordered with stone hedges. He enjoys getting out into the landscape and the elements that shape it – wind, sea, rain and man-made. These are the experiences that manifest themselves in his paintings.