Artist Profile - Aidan Cooper
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Biography
Aidan is based near Plymouth in Devon. He has exhibited mainly in the South West and has been represented at Bristol and London Affordable Art Fairs. In 2005 and 2007 he was also selected to exhibit at the Royal West of England Academy and the West of England Academy of Fine and Applied Arts. In his work he takes his subject and draws it toward the abstract, creating crisp, fresh images. In this series of paintings Aidan has been creating works which are finished in either a composite diptych or triptych form. They are roughly based around road trips to the mountains.
Artist Statement
Currently I am further exploring the picture making process by creating works which are finished in either a composite diptych or triptych form. The finished pieces are not put together in quite the same way as the religious altarpiece forms of the Renaissance, but are unified - that is to say they are created as separate panels and are brought together as one piece. The separate images could possibly stand alone but when juxtaposed, work better together as a single entity, with the interplay between them creating additional visual tension. This methodology allows for increased flexibility within the picture making process as multiple images can be brought together, swapping and changing panels as one searches for the most interesting or visually stimulating combinations. The subject matter can vary and as I move forward I hope to make no distinction between a realistic or abstract based approach. The current series of paintings are based on road trips into the mountains.
These current paintings are executed in a similar style to previous pieces inasmuch that I am continuing to use the double and triple panel format - however the image style has become less graphic and more realistic. This is because I have reduced the colour palette considerably and am concentrating for the moment on the tonality of black and white images. Once I have formalised this approach into a sustainable style I shall be able to expand the image vocabulary. This expanded vocabulary will be the focus of my next series of paintings.
