st. ives times and echo : march 23rd

the cornishman : what's on : march 22nd

life without words : the stour gallery : march 10th - april 21st

Jessica Cooper’s paintings have a clarity of observation and mark making that create their own ambiguity. Forming connections, emotions evolving and revolving, the paintings are caught in time, place and circumstance. Her subjects are the familiar that anchor her in her life; isolated on canvas, we reappraise and interpret them through our own daily lives. We feel we know them, as indeed we do; they are part of the shared human experience. A sense of place, a sense of self, and a sense of the pathos of the house, the tree, the cup, flower or fruit, are the communicating elements of Jessica Cooper’s work; that these objects and landscapes cannot know the emotional response they trigger in us; the moment caught and held by the paintbrush and pencil; and underpinning and supporting, the emotional communication, a strongly intuitive but academic understanding of area, colour, form and tone. In many ways visual poetry of the sparest and most affecting kind.

two commissioned poems by michael lay to accompany the exhibition ' life without words '

Arriving Home at Night.

Blinking awake under headlights then invisible asleep with a sigh.

Tucked into far western valleys, shrouded in wet mist. I am close,

the radio turns to white noise. Shipping forecast lost to a Cornish winter.

Tomorrow, if the fog has cleared, I will see them, old buildings

at the end, losing life as if they were prey caught in a granite web.

Tiny windows squinting through wind, striving to remain.

Still Life

Waiting colour in bowls and vases
lilies still in bud, fruit firm and green.

Briefly they flourish. Dashes of stamen-yellow
spread over petals of white and mauve

plums sinking to bottomless purple
oranges finding themselves waxy and bright.

Aromas wait by the door, a cocktail of spring
but no matter how much you change the water,

they won't keep. The flowers fall down a spectrum
of pastels, rich tones trickling to air, replaced by the shadow

of colour. Fruit flies appear in the kitchen. Nothing to do
but buy in fresh, or try to remember it all before

and paint a picture.

throwing stones

20/21 international art fair : feb 16th - 19th : the royal college of art london

                                                                                                              quarry hill

the london art fair islington : january 17th - 22nd

                                 
                                                                                                                my