Western Morning News (Saturday)
Artist’s work has a sense of tension beneath calm
Frank Ruhrmund sees the work of ‘one of the the most exciting abstract expressionist painters to emerge in recent years...’
When I first encountered Perranuthnoe-based David Mankin’s paintings some five or six years ago I said they reminded me of the famous letter Newlyn painter John Wells once wrote to St Ives sculptor Sven Berlin, in which he put forward an argument for abstraction.
After describing his surroundings, he wrote: “All this is part of one’s life and I want desperately to express it; not just what I see, but what I feel about it... but how can one paint the warmth of the sun, the sound of the sea, the journey of a beetle across a rock, or thoughts of one’s own whence and whither? One absorbs all these feelings and ideas: if one is lucky they undergo an alchemistic transformation into gold that is creative work.”
During the few years since that I quoted that, David Mankin has struck gold on several occasions with his creative work. More than a flash in the pan, his progress has been meteoric, confirming, as Sarah Brittain-Mansbridge, Director of Cornwall Contemporary, where his latest solo show Encounters is being held, reckons him to be “one of the most exciting abstract expressionist painters to emerge in Cornwall in recent years.”
The fact that not only an astonishing number of the paintings that make his exhibition were sold prior to the official opening of the show, but also that a staggering number of Kate Reeve-Edwards’ book David Mankin: Rembering in Paint, published by Sansom & Company at £35, that accompany the exhibition were were also sold, leaves one in no doubt that her reckoning is absolutely accurate.
All of which leaves one thinking, not bad going for one who is essentially a self-taught artist. Although aware of an artistic ability that he had when young, A-level art and all that, he actually completed a degree course in business studies which led to publishing IT magazines in London for some time, and it was not until he had started a family that the lure of the paintbrush and canvas beckoned and claimed him.
I’ve always loved the drama of this windswept peninsula, and I loved the St Ives Modernists’ work: the energy and dynamism of Peter Lanyon, the simplicity and essence of Sandra Blow, they articulated what I saw and what I felt
– DAVID MANKIN
It was almost a decade ago, when he and his partner, fellow artist Pippa Young, and family “two young boys Ben and Jack,” came to settle in Perranuthnoe, that his journey into art really began. The success of which owes a lot to the several weekends that he was lucky enough to experience in one of the Porthmeor Studios in St Ives. As he has said: “I’ve always loved the drama of this windswept peninsula, and I loved the St Ives Modernists’ work: the energy and dynamism of Peter Lanyon, the simplicity and essence of Sandra Blow, they articulated what I saw and what I felt. What came out of that fairly short experience was that the landscape seemed to be important to me, and when I look back at the work I made when I was younger, it has always been a central focus.” To mention but a few, with such works as: St Ives, ‘Race the Rising Wind’, Back Road West, and Storm over Zennor, he succeeds in presenting viewers with “Something they can’t quite put their finger on. A sense of tension beneath the calm. A sense of place, a sense of mystery. As they live with a painting, I would also hope that the dialogue continues, and new encounters and connections are made.”
There is a sense of purpose, a directness in his compositions that is compelling.
A constant is the underlying energy of the sea. Not to be missed, admission is free, and David Mankin’s Encounters can be seen at the Cornwall Contemporary, 1 Parade Street, Penzance, until September 25.