Benjamin Cottam

Benjamin Cottam received his BFA at the San Francisco Art
Institute and a MFA at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in
Boston. Cottam draws and paints. His ‘Dead Artist’ series features
portraits of artists who have died since 1950. He draws their
portraits in delicate silverpoint; always a small head, isolated and
lost, barely the size of a coin, placed in the centre of a sheet of
paper.

In his drawing style Cottam exhibits a love of detail; he is
meticulously exact in the drawing of the portrait so that the viewer
tends to recognize the person depicted. With the series ‘Black
Paintings’ one sees initially a black, glossy surface. Only gradually
does the viewer realise that he is not looking at a monochrome black
surface, but that a portrait shines through the numerous layers of
glaze.