David Cochran in his studio (Photo by Ash Daniel)
Who: David Cochran
Where: Crossroads Art Center
When: Through December 2019
If you’re lucky, you may find yourself in a David Cochran portrait.
A Bon Air native and VCU School of the Arts graduate who discovered his passion for art as a child, Cochran has been bringing canvases to life for more than 40 years. He is known for his personalized family portraits; large acrylic paintings featuring families, large and small, surrounded by the settings, animals and keepsakes that the subjects treasure most.
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“Coney Island Maidens,” acrylic on canvas, 30 by 40 inches
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“Peeping Tomcat,” acrylic on canvas, 3 by 4 feet
After serving as an artist-in-residence for the York County school system in the late 1970s, Cochran moved to Alexandria and found his calling as a studio artist at the Torpedo Factory Art Center. At the time, his art consisted mainly of music-themed paintings set in jazz clubs, billiard rooms and other social settings. Cochran was working on a commissioned piece for a client’s home in Potomac, Maryland, when the client requested that he and his wife be incorporated into the painting. Cochran painted the client as a saxophonist and his wife as a singer. It sparked an idea.
“I realized that this could be an untapped direction for me — creating these casual family portraits in nontraditional ways,” Cochran says. “That was the beginning of how I’ve made my living for the past 20 or so years now.”
During his initial consultations with clients, Cochran asks about significant locations, cherished memories and favorite foods. He examines the walls of their home and the photos on their mantle to gather inspiration for what to include in the painting, producing a sketch to show the clients his vision.
“I enjoy the challenge of meeting with people who have virtually no idea how their lives and loved ones can be depicted, and then putting it all together in a cohesive, visual representation for them,” he says.
When the youngest of their three sons left for college in 2017, Cochran and his wife, Sheryl, decided to return to their roots and settle in Richmond. They purchased and restored a 4,200-square-foot, 1920s Italian Villa-style home in the Fan. The bottom floor is Cochran’s studio, which includes a billiards table and a space where his sons play guitar and drums.
“The kiss of death for me is to paint in a structured, pristine setting,” he says. “I need lots of things going on around me because my paintings are loose. If things are too neat, it tightens up my paintings.”
“Snap-away general,” 2017, ceramic and mixed metals, 9 by 15 by 10 inches
Don't Miss: Aggie Zed’s latest works, “Zed’s Zed’s,” interweave the imaginative possibilities of human dreaming and the supposed rationality of human activity in mixed media. Through Dec. 13, Flippo Gallery at Randolph-Macon College, 211 N. Center St.
