Statement
The various environments in which I have lived have informed my work in painting and sculpture. These experiences are distilled and abstracted to recapture a sense of place. I often work in series which allows me to explore and develop several different images over time. I intend my paintings to be spatially ambiguous. They may be read simply as shapes on a surface, but at the same time, can give a sense of three dimensional space. Expressing sensation and emotion through colour is as important to me as form and structure. However much I plan, starting a new piece of work is a voyage of discovery.
EXtract from ‘Drawing Comparisons‘ Catalogue by Dianne King
Collingbourne’s drawings are built in a similar way to sculpture but without any obvious concern with mass and volume. Collingbourne, in fact, trained as a painter and has spend many years making two-dimensional as we as three-dimensional works. He sees drawing as an opportunity to explore different aspects or developments not possible in sculpture. His sculpture is contemplative, intellectual, pared down, whereas the drawings are more emotional and sensual, especially in their use of colour. As well as being more spontaneous than sculpture, drawings can form a continuum of formal ideas that can be sustained in short bursts of activity. To create three-dimensional works in metal, as Collingbourne does, however, one has “to make an appointment for it and get on all this kit”-sculpture is a time consuming business.
The content of both his drawing and sculpture comes from landscape and memory. Specific places and experiences are abstracted, made more general and accessible. Hills and valleys in Corsica, the map of Devon, views from his windows are distilled into simplified and condensed forms.
“Although my work appears ‘abstract’, many of the forms have evolved through my experience of living in a variety of environments. [For example,] a preoccupation with contracting curves and straight forms stems partly from Far Eastern architecture and calligraphy…”.
Increasingly, these are invented landscapes, “Landscapes of the mind” rather than observed ones. They look inwards as much as outwards. These forms are deliberately ambiguous and capable of more than one reading, often resembling those in his sculptures.
Collingbourne shares with Matisse and Hodgkin not only an exquisite sense of colour, but also a fascination with windows and frames within frames. Like Hodgkin, he uses colour to create mood, ambience and a certain nostalgic feel. A sense of time, too, can be conveyed through colour-the yellow of glorious childhood summers, the blues and purples of twilight. In Collingbourne’s drawings, the exuberance and panache of the colour are held in tension with the very ordered forms.
Drawings might be cut up and reform into new works, with the different components clearly visible. The combination of large planar areas with more detailed linear elements seems to relate to his earlier steel sculptures which were elegant drawings in space. The austere, volumetric aspects of his recent sculpture are echoed in the series of black and white drawings where the flat dark sections are built up with many washes to give a density of tone comparable with the restrained patination on some of the sculptures.
Collingbourne uses a variety of media and of methods of starting a drawing - in his case, he often begins with a monoprint which is drawn onto. His finds pencil inhibiting, preferring to make lines with a stick, the ends of a paintbrush, scissors or knife. “There should be nothing you’re not allowed to do”. The cutting is drawing as much as marking is.
Matisse described his late cut-outs as being like sculpture, but cutting into paper rather than stone. Similarly, Collingbourne cuts into his drawings and reassembles them in a way analogous to constructing a sculpture. In contemporary drawings, many artist use multi-media, and revel in confusing categories, in breaking through the boundaries which restrict their practice.
CV and Exhibitions
1943 Born Dartington Devon
1948-60 Dartington Hall School
1960-61 Dartington College of Arts
1961-64 Bath Academy of Art, Corsham
1965 Taught Matthew Arnold School, Oxford
1965-70 Lecturer, Dartington College of Art
1970 Foundry course, RCA
1971 Worked at the Serpentine Gallery, London
1972 Assistant to Robert Adams (sculptor)
1972-73 Worked and exhibited in Malaysia
1974 Fellow in Sculpture, University College of Wales
1976-98 Lecturer, Sculpture School, Edinburgh College of Art
1998 Residency, Svenska Yrkeshogskolan, Finland
1999- Full-time Artist
Commissions
1974 Leicester University
1975 Forestry Commission, Wales
1977 Livingstone new Town
1983 Royal Mile, Edinburgh
Public Collections
Scottish Arts Council
Welsh Arts Council
Leicester City Art Gallery
Devon County Council
Hertford County Council
Edinburgh City Art Gallery
Leicester County Council
Art in Hospitals
Motherwell District Council
Awards and Prizes
1972 Arts Council of Great Britain
John Moores, Liverpool
1973 The British Council
1975 Welsh Arts Council
Arts Council of Great Britain
1976 Welsh Arts Council
1977 Royal Scottish Academy
1978 Royal Scottish Academy
1985 Scottish Arts Council
Mixed Exhibitions
1971 Zella 9 Gallery, London
Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
Royal Academy, London
1972 “John Moores” Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Russell Centenary Exhibition, London
1973 Sothman Gallery, Amsterdam
Leamington Art Gallery
Dorset Country Museum
1974 Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Silversmiths Hall, London
Ipswich Museum, Suffolk
1975 Torbay School of Art, Devon
1976 Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
National Eisteddfod, Wales
Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
Bangor Art Gallery, Wales
1977 Edinburgh College of Art
Glasgow Group, McLellan Galleries
Crow Steps, Blairlogie
S.W. Arts, Devon
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
Dartington Hall, Devon
1978 Scottish Artists, Alamo, London
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
Crow Steps, Blairlogie
1990 Laing Exhibition, at
Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh. and
Mall Galleries, London
1991 Laing Exhibition, at
Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh. and
Mall Galleries, London
D.M. Vaughn, Edinburgh.
Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh
1992 Laing Exhibition, Glasgow. and
Mall Galleries, London
1994 The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Art
1995 City as a Work Of Art. Edinburgh
1997 The Royal Glasgow Institute of fine Arts
1998 British Art Medal Society at:
Simmons Gallery, London,
Loughborough College of Art,
Pallant House, Chichester and
Yorkshire Museum
International FIDEMS Biennale, The Hague
2007 Edinburgh College of Art Centenary Exhibition at:
City Arts Centre, Edinburgh,
Fleming Collection, London, and
David Patterson Collection, London
The Alumni Exhibition at
University College of Wales, Aberystwyth
2009 Aspect Exhibition, Paisley Museum
One Man Exhibitions
1968 Dartington Hall, Devon
1971 Zella 9 Gallery, London
1972 University of Leeds
Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool
1973 British Council, Kuala Lumpar
Fisher Gallery, London
1974 University College of Wales, Aberystwyth
1975 Chapter Art Centre, Cardiff
University College of Wales, Aberystwyth
Oriel, Welsh Arts Council Gallery, Cardiff
1977 Plymouth City Art Gallery
Southampton City Art Gallery
Leicester City Art Gallery
1979 MacRobert Arts Centre, Stirling University
1991 Sculpture, St Andrews Festival
1993 ”Reflections on Landscape” at:
Christopher Boyd Gallery, Galashiels.
Tweeddale Museum, Peebles
1997 “Reflections on Landscape” at
High Cross House, Dartington Hall
1998 The Plough Arts Centre, Torrington
Galleri Victor, Nykarleby, Finland
2013 “Don’t be Afraid of Pink” at
Tweeddale Museum, Peebles
2016 “Don’t be Afraid of Pink” at
City Art Centre, Edinburgh
Group Exhibitions
1967 Dartington Hall, Devon
1969 Exmouth Gallery, Devon
1972 Serpentine Gallery, London
1973 Kettles Yard, Cambridge
Gainsborough House, Sudbury
Minories Gallery, Colchester
1976 National Eisteddfod, Wales
Welsh Arts Council (touring)
1977 Campbell and Arnott, Architects, Edinburgh
1978 “Small Sculpture”, Scottish Arts Council (touring)
“Objects and constructions”, Edinburgh Festival
1982 “Maquettes for Public Sculpture”:
Welsh Arts Council (touring)
1983 “Built in Scotland” at:
Third Eye Centre, Glasgow,
City Arts Centre, Edinburgh and
Camden Arts Centre, London.
1984 Federation of Scottish Sculptors, at
Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh
1985-86 Scottish Sculpture Open 3” at:
Kildrummy Castle, Aberdeenshire.
Cramond Sculpture Park, Edinburgh
1985 “Hands Off”, Crawford Arts Centre, St Andrews
“Sculpture Now”, at
Cramond Sculpture Park, Edinburgh
Edinburgh/Dublin, Edinburgh Festival
“Four Sculptors in Charlotte Square”, at
Edinburgh Festival
1986 “One Cubic Foot”, at Artspace Aberdeen. and
Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh
“Spring Fling”, Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
1988 “Five Distinguished Scottish Sculptors”, at
Kingfisher Gallery, Edinburgh
CAVA Festival Exhibition, Edinburgh
1990 Informal Works on Paper, Edinburgh Festival
1991 Crawford Arts Centre, St Andrews Festival
1994 “Nine Sculptors in Scotland” Edinburgh Festival
1997-98 “Drawing comparisons”, Touring Exhibition
1998 ”Installation and Drawing”, at
K.H.Renludin, Taidmuseo, Kokkola, Finland Taideteollinen, Korkeakoulu, Helsinki, Finland
