Archive

Journeys to south west Scotland have also provided an environment that continually changes, hour by hour with the weather and the tides. Hot sands in high summer, winter rains at high tide, and peaty streams as the snows melt form part of a long-lasting theme that Jon has explored for many years. Painting at the edge of the water requires the ability to capture the essence of the moment, before it’s lost; though the next moment, the next tide can be equally inspirational. Jon continually returns to the Fleet Estuary to paint the coves, bays, and mud flats, again searching for the underlying colours and sense of space.

The countryside around Jon's home offers continual opportunities to explore the more contained environment of Oxfordshire, whether in places such as Foxcombe Woods, where the ponds and paths are carved out of the trees or the large fields that surround small villages and homesteads.

His views of the hills of Devon, the Pennines and Scotland reflect the changes in weather and the different seasons.

This theme has emerged as some of the paintings and sketches themselves have been deconstructed and abstracted. This provides the opportunity to play with colour and shape, and to create paintings of detail and depth. Scenes are painted over and over. Each picture dissects the landscape to expose its essence and abstracts and ‘decorates’ the result of this analysis. This has been the case when Jon has painted a favourite area in Scotland where the landscape is both sensual and evocative. The theme of Details is built up from the landscape around the River Fleet valley in Scotland.

The richness and colour of the landscape can be seen in the paintings of the countryside around Uzes.  Villages, vineyards and some of the events and fetes provide the material for much of his work.  Examples include:

A series of paintings that reflect the movement and passion of the Fetes des Taureaux, during which bulls are driven through local villages and let loose to rampage through the streets. Here the coming together of the black bulls, the white horses of the Carmargues, the local Gitanes in their white shirts and black trousers provides the touchstone for this theme.

Siracusa was both an opportunity to explore some of the very urban parts of the city, and to create a sort of “road movie” that encapsulated a trip to a Roman gem. This series of paintings established a new palette and was shown in the Wolfson exhibition of 2018.