Alan Cooper - Killing time

Having worked as a graphic designer for the last 30 years I am now devoting the majority of my time drawing and painting.

With experience of composition from my design days I have been experimenting with geometric shapes and bold use of colour to suggest an aerial view of an imaginary landscape together with a recognisable icon such as a palm tree in a separate perspective. I find combining 2 separate perspectives intriguing while moving between abstraction and representation.

The palm tree series, some of which have been sold on Catawiki, using acrylic on canvas and paper, are inspired by a mix of Hockney, Diebenkorn and Hans Hofmann.

I begin these particular paintings by having a general idea of the colour scheme and then I create shapes in Adobe Illustrator enabling me to make quick decisions on colour and composition. Once I am satisfied with the composition, I then scale the image on to canvas, marking out the shapes in pencil. If necessary, I will go over areas with slightly different values to improve the balance of the overall image.

Quite often I notice small areas in these geometric paintings that trigger a new painting.

I find it a logical process to be influenced by great art and movements (basically borrowing and stealing) in order to blend and distort to hopefully create something that is interesting. The aim is to hold the viewer’s attention for at least ten seconds!

10 of the palm tree canvases are currently exhibited at various workplaces and hotels.

After creating this series of abstracts I am exploring portraits with an abstract edge to them.

The painting 'Killing time' is based on a couple of people seen sat near a fast food van. The background detail was removed and an abstract red painted in. The foreground gave me licence to introduce various colours and brush strokes.

I find it a logical process to be influenced by great art and movements (basically borrowing and stealing) in order to blend and distort to hopefully create something that is interesting. The aim is to hold the viewer’s attention for at least ten seconds!