The Hyde Gallery presents A Moment in Motion, a new collection of paintings by David Cottingham, created directly in his studio as a response to live presence, rhythm, and the immediacy of making.
This body of work emerges from the act of painting as a lived performance. Developed during live studio sessions, the works capture fleeting instants of movement - most notably dancers - translated into instinctive brushwork, layered gesture, and vivid colour. Rather than constructed compositions, these paintings become records of time unfolding, where each mark responds to the energy of the moment.
Cottingham dissolves the boundary between observation and abstraction. Figures appear and dissolve within fields of colour, their forms suggested rather than fixed. What remains is sensation rather than depiction: the pulse of motion, the trace of presence, and the rhythm of a body in space.
Colour functions as both structure and emotion throughout the collection. Bold contrasts and luminous passages create a visual tempo that echoes music and choreography. In certain works, heightened tones and fluorescent accents intensify this rhythm, giving the paintings a charged, kinetic quality.
A Moment in Motion reflects Cottingham’s ongoing exploration of how painting can hold movement within a single surface - how gesture, memory, and atmosphere can coexist in real time. The result is a collection that feels immediate and alive, shaped as much by performance and time as by pigment and form.
At its core, the exhibition invites viewers to experience painting not as a static image, but as a suspended instant - where motion is captured just long enough to be felt.