Low Down Articles
Artist Profiles - Denise Coker
Article 6 of 73
From the book Artists of the Gatineau Hill by Catherine Joyce. This article first appeared in the "Artist Profiles" column in the July 4, 2007 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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Seeking Oneness
For Denise Coker the best paintings paint themselves. There is an energy that infuses them with a sense of oneness, an "extra element" that seems to lift the painting to the mystical plane.
"Most often my paintings are the result of an unusually intense communication with the subject during which I sense a profound connection that goes beyond the visual. Whether it is the dawn light on the lake, a silent encounter with a heron at the stream or an unexpected country landscape, it is that feeling of oneness I seek and want to share."
Born in England, Denise grew up with a love of drawing and a passion for horses. By the age of 18 she was a qualified equitation instructor, off to live in Germany. There she met Erdmann Konig, a well-known Munich painter. When he saw her portfolio of drawings he said, "To waste such a talent would be a crime."
For the next two years she became Konig's apprentice, painting with him in his studio and accompanying him to salon sales to learn the business of becoming a professional artist. By the time she returned to England in 1965, she was able to earn her living by selling her paintings in London.
Even then she knew what she was after. "It is not just that a certain landscape creates a feeling in me; it is more that the feeling is already there in the subject, waiting for me to connect. If I can keep my focus on the experience of that feeling, then the oneness comes through in the work and may be recognized by others. This is why from the beginning my work has been so various - sometimes realistic expressions of the familiar, other times abstract or surreal. Each painting is a rendezvous with art, nature and the inner spirit, a process which offers sustenance in return."
Denise has needed such soul food. Thrown from a horse in Germany and re-injured in a car accident while running an art gallery in Spain, she went through times when she could not paint. Teaching painting, screen printing and enamelling kept her going until her desire to see more of the world led her to work for an airline. While traveling in the Canary Islands she met her future husband, a Canadian, and by 1972 she emigrated here.
With the birth of her son, Denise was free to paint again. Her career flourished in Toronto, with solo exhibitions in Oakville where a Montreal agent offered to take everything she painted. Her paintings found their way into private collections in Spain, Germany, Australia, England, Denmark, Switzerland, South Africa, and the USA.
Soon life changes challenged her again with the delicate balancing act of solo motherhood, full time employment and pursuing her art. She moved to the Gatineau Hills in 1985, finding new forms, colours and landscapes to inspire her search for oneness in painting, and more recently in tapestries and woven paintings.
"Art has been my lifeline. It has seen me through the darkest moments. In Nature you see destruction and always there is decay but then there is renewal and rebirth, hope and beauty: I have become a daily witness to how nature works - to create, to heal, to re-design and adapt to change. Here I find the positive energies and different perspectives that survival and procreation ultimately bring.
"Creating art requires a kind of humility that acknowledges certain truths. It is an act of faith that if you remain true to your process, holding the energy as you work it through, then that mysterious extra element may emerge - if it is meant to be. My painting and the woven reconstructions of my art provide that elusive connection to oneness that is so reassuring. Like coming home."