2024 . the long weekend . foreword . sarah brittain – mansbridge . cornwall contemporary
2024 the long weekend cornwall contemporary
foreword sarah brittain – mansbridge
Jessica Cooper’s inspiration for this collection of paintings came from a long weekend in the summer of 2023. The resultant works contemplate the enigmatic and fleeting nature of moments, the nostalgia associated with memories and the inevitability of change.
“The concept for this exhibition of paintings and drawings began one weekend in the summer of
2023.It was a blistering hot couple of days and I remember thinking “this is going to be a long weekend”.
I visited a friend in Newlyn on Saturday to collect some succulent cuttings. She showed me around her garden – a little oasis, built into a slope that leads to boat yards, buildings and then down to the sea.
When I saw the plants, I got that irresistible feeling of wanting to draw, which I did and on the walk home I stopped to take photos of the harbour and bay as it was such a still and lovely day.
On the Sunday, I visited a second friend who lives on the other coast at Kelynack, near Lands End. We sat in the cool, old kitchen of her farmhouse, away from the sun. As we chatted and drank coffee, I noticed the beautiful items around the room, from chairs to old container jars and for the second time that weekend, I felt that irrevocable urge to draw. Driving home, I knew that this weekend had given me the inspiration I needed for my exhibition at Cornwall Contemporary and over the following months in the studio, I thought about the notion of time and how our perceptions and feelings can shift and change, and that really ‘the long weekend’ could go on forever. I returned to these two places many times to draw.
The first painting in this series of work was The Long Weekend – a vase of flowers in my studio. It helped lead me into the painting process, giving me the confidence in my ideas and the clarity to paint. The last painting It’s Easy to Come Home, completed in April 2024 is of the island in St. Ives. I had stopped to look at this special place and it consequently made me think about the end of the
show and what would come next. In both my professional practice and personal life, flowers and the island in St. Ives, have always been two constants, so it felt very affirming to have these two work representing the start and the finish.
Whatever the subject matter in this show; be it a garden of iconic shaped, blooming plants, a house popping up around a bend in the road, a fishing boat at one with its harbour, or an exquisite old utensil pot on a table; the forms act as vessels or containers which hold emotion and feeling for me and encapsulate life within the work.”