BOOKS BY
DAVID MANKIN
What is inside?
This is not simply a record of David's work.
It is a portal into his mind, his thinking, his creativity and his inspirational process and art practice. How his work is born and how his paintings talk and converse with viewers on multiple levels.
Read more here...At the heart of David Mankin Language of Paint is a wide ranging, candid conversation between David and author Alison Bevan.
An in-depth discussion about how a visual language and a creative voice builds over time, through life experience and through a defined but free creative process.
It delves into the importance of immersing yourself in the canon of art history while remaining entirely yourself. It’s about the role of risk, play and experimentation plus embracing failure to discover a creative voice and unique way of communicating through the language of paint.
Bevan situates David's work within a broad tradition, from Romanticism and St Ives Modernism to American Abstract Expressionism, exploring what makes his practice distinctly his own. She brings both scholarship and a curator’s eye to the question of how the act of painting becomes a powerful, enduring language.
The book also reveals something rarely seen: pages from David's sourcebooks. Four Sourcebooks are featured bringing together over 100 sketches and collages. The raw, fragmentary, often unexpected beginnings of paintings that almost never leave the studio. Collages, sketches, slivers of photographs, flotsam, lines of poetry. The things that spark ideas, starting points that really get the painting process moving.
In the main Painting of a Language section Bevan gets to the essence of his language, analysing the cornerstones of how it has developed and how it continues to speak volumes. Throughout this section, collectors share their thoughts on what his paintings have meant to them over time.
Not what the paintings look like on the surface, but the deeper emotions they unlock. The way they hold memories, trigger moments and create a constant internal dialogue."
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David Mankin Language of Paint
David Mankin Language of Paint follows on from David Mankin Remembering in Paint. This new extended edition monograph explores how Mankin's distinctive language of painting has developed and how his ever evolving creative process continues to expands his vocabulary. Covering the period 2021-2026 which marked major shifts in his work it includes a wide ranging interview with the author. It gives the reader unrivalled access to the sources, influences and methods that inform his work and for the first time to his much admired sourcebooks the essence of how his visual language has been created.
David Mankin Remembering in Paint
I have seen his status rise significantly in the art world and his reputation confirmed as one of the most exciting Abstract Expressionist painters to emerge in recent years. I have curated exhibitions in Cornwall for the last 24 years and rarely, if ever, have I seen an artist create more of a devoted following than David Mankin. His unique perspective on the Cornish landscape manages to provoke more depth of feeling, emotion, and excitement amongst art collectors and admirers, than most other artists I know. (Sarah Brittain-Mansbridge, Director, Cornwall Contemporary Gallery)
Remembering in Paint
- 180 pages, softback
- Featuring over 200 images of paintings, sketches and collages made between 2013-2021
- Size 270mm x 230mm
- Price £35
- Published by arts publisher Sansom & Company.
- Order online through the link below via Sansom.
- UK Postage Free..Worldwide postage by tracked courier service only.
- Limited number of signed copies exclusively available through Cornwall Contemporary Gallery. (In gallery only)
- Also available from leading online booksellers such as:
- Amazon
- Waterstones
Language of Paint
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David Mankin: Language of Paint follows on from David Mankin: Remembering in Paint. This new extended edition monograph explores how Mankin's distinctive language of painting has developed and how his ever evolving creative process continues to expands his vocabulary. Covering the period 2021-2026 which marked major shifts in his work it includes a wide ranging interview with the author. It gives the reader unrivalled access to the sources, influences and methods that inform his work and for the first time to his much admired sourcebooks the essence of how his visual language has been created.
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232 pages, softback - Limited edition
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Featuring over 300 images of paintings, sketches and collages made between 2021-2026
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Size 270mm x 230mm
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Price £45
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Published by arts publisher Sansom & Company.
A Personal Note From David...
“Five years ago in 2021, David Mankin Remembering in Paint was published I remember at the time being beyond proud of it and still am. I couldn’t believe it was there in print and I was holding it! I can recall being slightly trepidatious about how it would be go down but everyone was so supportive and they loved it and were inspired by it!
With this book I wanted to go deeper and further into my process and paintings 5 years on, I want the book to help and inspire others to identify their passion, their voice, their process, their creative core and critically to help unearth their language of paint.
Alison spent the last year asking me questions, ones I have rarely been asked. She visited me in my Cornish studio several times and over many cups of tea we had some wonderfully deep conversations. About how I actually work, my process, my practice, my life, hopes and dreams and how this all comes together and feeds into my language of paint.
Included in the book is a large selection of paintings I‘ve made since 2021 which is quite a few! One thing I was also excited to include was my Sourcebooks which are rarely seen apart from when I have a solo exhibition. So I’m excited to include four of them here in detail. I think you’ll love looking through these and find them inspiring.
Being inspired is it in a nutshell. I know many of you have David Mankin Remembering in Paint in your studios and I wanted David Mankin Language of Paint to be a sister publication or in arty language a diptych publication!
They are both the same size, same paper whiteness and the same print quality so they will sit perfectly together in your studio. I want to make you think, always be inspired (especially on tough days) and for both to be objects of beauty that bring a smile to your face and that you’ll return to and enjoy time and time again.
As always thank you for following me along and being so supportive of my art journey.
It means the world to me.”

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What people are saying...
“Arrived yesterday. Started reading it immediately. May possibly leave the sofa for food and tea ( bathroom visits will be fitted in too)!”
“It is on the desk in my studio so I can pick it up anytime. A real gem of a book and by far my favourite art book”
“Its so inspiring and helps me developing my creative process” Thank you so much for talking about yours so open hearted”
“I was thrilled to receive my copy…. a feast, to the eye, to the soul, to the mind!”
“I’m in my armchair with a glass of red ... ready to dive in! Thank you sharing your beautiful world with us”
"The only artist’s book I have read from cover to cover!! Normally I just look at the pictures."
“This is a wonderful, sharing, practical book and much of what David has to say about art making applies whatever your medium and style”
“Its so inspiring and helps me developing my creative process” Thank you so much for talking about yours so open hearted”
“I loved every single word and I can't even begin to share how your paintings moved me. For anyone out there who does not yet have a copy, don't delay. It is a treasure.”
“This is a fantastic book ….. I find it great to read over and over I always pick up something different from the words & from the paintings. It is so beautifully put together. I love seeing how the photos and found objects translates into the painting. So incredibly inspirational”
“The very best painter working in Britain today. David Mankin has taken Cornish art to another level He has taken the legacy of Peter Lanyon (my all time favourite artist) and has surpassed the great artist in many ways. This wonderful painter has produced a stunning heartfelt book of his art and his ways of seeing and feeling. Brilliant text from Kate Reeve Edwards”
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