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Painter and illustrator Dave Cooper might very well be Ottawa’s best known visual artist whose international reputation seems to, sadly for Ottawa, overshadow his local rep. His paintings of pillowy women that are, at once, erotic, innocent and can veer into the mildly disturbing, sell in New York, Los Angeles and Paris while his current hiatus from the graphic novel world is also mourned internationally.

In “Nice Ottawa”, his work is occasionally on display in “one-night stand” format at Ottawa’s black sheep of the visual arts scene, Galerie La Petite Mort or recently at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

But perhaps his latest series will be found to be more palatable to the more conservative in Ottawa.

When a pomegranate isn’t just a pomegranate

Cooper’s latest mini-series could loosely be termed as “the erotic innocence of fruit”. Pomegranate A (below), B (left) and C (top) were originally conceived as a triptych with “A” being unabashedly lush, B” a balance of age and vitality and “C”, a literal balance of opposites.

Luckily for me, “Pomegranate C” is snapped up. (Yes, I’m the culprit. It was an extravagant birthday gift paid in sweat, paint and affection.)

Still, it’s worth following Dave Cooper’s visual arts site and sniff around the galleries in town to see if Dave will explore this new concept further or return to his “pillowy girls”.

Dave Cooper is accepting commissions. You can contact him at dave [at] davegraphics [dot] com.

Images all © Dave Cooper. Republishing available with permission.