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Jessica Cooper Artist

sometimes it takes just the one line cutting into a space

Category Archives: past essays

2024 . an interview with jessica cooper . cube gallery . london

Jessica Cooper Artist

  2024    an interview with jessica cooper    cube gallery    london   Jessica Cooper is a painter who is based in Cornwall, UK. Here she shares the inspirations of her early life, insights into her creative process, and finding … find out more

2024 . the long weekend . foreword . sarah brittain – mansbridge . cornwall contemporary

Jessica Cooper Artist

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, … find out more

2023 . q + a . blog . online interview . kari herbert . newlyn school of art

Jessica Cooper Artist

https://www.newlynartschool.co.uk/blog/jessica-cooper-artist-q-and-a

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2021 . fantastic flowers and small houses . foreword . richard blackborow . belgrave gallery

Jessica Cooper Artist

2021    fantastic flowers and small houses    belgrave gallery foreword    richard blackborow For this exhibition, Jessica Cooper has revisited two motifs/themes that have appeared in her work over the years, but that have had particular resonance in the past year. In … find out more

2020 . artists in lockdown . article . mercedes smith . drift magazine

Jessica Cooper Artist

artists in lockdown    drift magazine article    mercedes smith At first, I sort of let Covid-19 pass me over. My son was teaching in Shanghai and he returned to the UK at the start of February just as everything kicked off. … find out more

2020 . reflecting images . artist notes . jessica cooper . belgrave gallery

Jessica Cooper Artist

2020    reflecting images    belgrave gallery artist notes    jessica cooper The paintings in this exhibition are informed by three specific places and periods of time . A number of the works are executed on canvas – a support and surface with … find out more

2019 . introducing the new . edgar modern

Jessica Cooper Artist

2019    introducing the new    edgar modern text    edgar modern This new collection of paintings, by artist Jessica Cooper rwa, has been created in the past year and developed from a series of notes, film, photography and sketchbook drawings . It … find out more

2019 . modern creatives . q + a . interview . seasalt

Jessica Cooper Artist

2019    modern creatives    seasalt q + a    interview click here

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2018 . the intimate landscape . introduction . elizabeth knowles . belgrave gallery

Jessica Cooper Artist

2018    the intimate landscape    belgrave gallery introduction    elizabeth knowles For these new paintings, Jessica Cooper has allowed herself to look back as well as forward. It is her usual practice to engage with places where her eye was suddenly caught, … find out more

2018 . portraits of the artists . michael carter . book . penwith gallery

Jessica Cooper Artist

2018    portraits of the artists    the penwith society of artists text    michael carter The vast bay of Penzance lay grey and flat under low heavy cloud, and a hard iron band seemed to score the horizon. This distinct line … find out more

2017 . the view from here . artist text . jessica cooper . edgar modern

Jessica Cooper Artist

2017    the view from here    edgar modern artist text    jessica cooper i was sitting in a room that looked out on to a garden and a stillness filled me an extract from ‘ on time for once ‘ brian pattern … find out more

2017 . but plastic is beautiful . artist text . jessica cooper . kestle barton

Jessica Cooper Artist

2017    ….   but plastic is beautiful    kestle barton artist text    kestle barton …   what if it were possible for a work to be conceived beyond the self, a work that allowed us to escape the limited perspective of … find out more

2016 . one divided by two . foreword . richard blackborow . belgrave gallery

Jessica Cooper Artist

2016    one divided by two    belgrave gallery foreword    richard blackborow In her first solo exhibition for Belgrave St Ives ‘About Home’ Jessica Cooper explored repeated journeys made between her home in the far west of Cornwall and St Ives as … find out more

2015 . the fabric unrolls . artist notes . jessica cooper . newlyn art gallery

Jessica Cooper Artist

2015    the fabric unrolls    newlyn art gallery artist notes    jessica cooper a series of designs inspired by a walk along venice beach in los angeles . i made a set of drawings and chose two to translate into fabric and … find out more

2015 . the four corners of the world plus one . foreword . dr ryya bread . the stour gallery

Jessica Cooper Artist

2015    the four corners of the world plus one ….    the stour gallery

foreword    dr ryya bread

A formula has been drawn up… a framework for her to work within. She has made a line around herself and the world…
The four corners of the world plus one…’plus one’ because you can never get it all in the initial framework… there is always the exception…The anomaly here is case and point.

She told me about this framework months ago… for months I have watched it being filled in – like a school girl with a colouring book both in the tedious classroom and out on a glorious field trip. She has spent her time painting the canvases she laid out to complete. She has made explicit an inherent part of her professional practice – of setting about the business of producing a body of work…

How does she approach the task? She makes a structure to rein in a seemingly infinite amount of possibilities… in order to focus on a few of them and actually manifest them into paintings… and a show.

She has told me the framework many times, patiently going over it… excitedly expounding about it, fearfully fretting through it and blazingly triumphing over it… and yet I struggle simply to remember it.

Here I am now… at the thin end of the line… on the wire as it were… and I am clumsily trying to fit the puzzle pieces together – to remember the order, the categories – was it 5 canvases in four corners plus one? Or four canvases in 5 corners – were the chairs in the first corner or the last – are the houses in the plus one or the fourth? See how I run…?

But it doesn’t matter really – make of it what you will.The framework is a convention.A hanger to display the garment… the garment is her artful offering – the canvases themselves – the paint, the patience, the insight, the wit, the humour… it is all there in the paintings to see.

She can make as many categories as she likes – she can fill as many corners as it takes… underlying the garment of canvases, lies the body of her work – the substance of it all: her own being in this world and the mission to take meaning from it, to make meaning of it; and in so doing… becoming more and more the painter that she already is… painting herself a world that she wants to live in and inviting us to take tea with her there amidst the flowers and the fruit…in a house of our own design… with a love bigger than the world we know already and as big as our imagination can stretch the everyday things that surround us.

She shows us, through this body of work, what a wonderful world this can be when it is illuminated by simple acknowledgement and sheer conviction of the mark that this makes. She invites us to wear it, to live it and to see art in every corner of our world, plus hers.

 

2014 . just turn left . essay . olivia mcewan . edgar modern

Jessica Cooper Artist

2014    just turn left    edgar modern  essay    olivia mcewan Jessica Cooper RWA searches for the quiet, core vitality of things. Everyday objects and shapes are represented via their most essential outlines and details, rendered with a perception and confidence of … find out more

2014 . about home . introduction . ismay atkins . belgrave gallery

Jessica Cooper Artist

2014    about home    belgrave gallery introduction    ismay atkins Like the comic silence that treads a thrilling fine line; the pregnant pause in a bar of music; the short line of poetry that gathers emotion in refrain, Jessica Cooper’s apparent simplicity … find out more

2013 . fixtures and fittings . foreword . dr ryya bread . kestle barton

Jessica Cooper Artist

2013    fixtures and fittings    kestle barton foreword    dr ryya bread A layered location replete with human histories and memories, place has width as well as depth. It is about connections, what surrounds it, what formed it, what happened there, what … find out more

2012 . an open book . foreword . dr ryya bread . edgar modern

Jessica Cooper Artist

2012    an open book – plain to see    edgar modern foreword    dr ryya bread “Our house was full of her notebooks, drawings and paintings and over the years I have watched her journey from kitchen pin-board to gallery wall.” Carol … find out more

2012 . life without words . foreword . sarah stoten . the stour gallery

Jessica Cooper Artist

2012    life without words    the stour gallery foreword    sarah stoten 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 … find out more

2012 . life without words . commissioned poems . michael lay . the stour gallery

Jessica Cooper Artist

2012    life without words    the stour gallery commissioned poems    michael lay 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 … find out more

2011 . a place to be . foreword . sam bleakley . the hart gallery

Jessica Cooper Artist

2011    a place to be    the hart gallery foreword    sam bleakley A surfer as well as an artist, Jessica Cooper knows what it is like to sit on the skin of the ocean still as a bird while all around … find out more

2010 . because i love to paint . foreword . carol cooper . edgar modern

Jessica Cooper Artist

2010    because i love to paint    edgar modern foreword    carol cooper A vase of flowers, a bowl of fruit, an isolated house set in a wild landscape, Jessica’s paintings never fail to engage with the onlooker. From an early age … find out more

2009 . the certainty of uncertainty . foreword . elizabeth knowles . the hart gallery

Jessica Cooper Artist

2009    the certainty of uncertainty    the hart gallery foreword    elizabeth knowles This exhibition of Jessica Cooper’s new work includes still lives and landscapes painted with her characteristic brevity and bravado. There is a strong flavour of poetry about her images, … find out more

2009 . sea and solitude . interview . alex wade . cornwall today

Jessica Cooper Artist

2009    sea and solitude    badcock’s gallery cornwall today    interview    alex wade “I loved London, its sense of anonymity and the hard slog that goes with being there. But I couldn’t live there for long. I just couldn’t be away from … find out more

2009 . along the same lines . statement . double vision . the exchange

Jessica Cooper Artist

2009    double vision    newlyn and the exchange along the same lines    jessica cooper and richard hawkins Jessica Cooper is a visual artist who has been working in Cornwall since graduating from Goldsmith’s College, London in 1989. She began surfing five … find out more

2009 . coloured drawings . artist statement . the ramp wall . the exchange

Jessica Cooper Artist

2009    coloured drawings    the ramp wall    newlyn and the exchange   artist statement    jessica cooper This series of drawings ( with painting ) developed from an interest in the architecture and the artefacts found in the café and  shop … find out more

2008 . new paintings . foreword . nicholas usherwood . the stour gallery

Jessica Cooper Artist

2008    new paintings    the stour gallery foreword    nicholas usherwood Cup-cakes on a plate, plums in a white bowl, a house on a bare hill or a solitary white chair in a darkened room- Jessica Cooper’s spare, apparently laconic images, often … find out more

2008 . in between lines . foreword . anne l cowe phd . edgar modern

Jessica Cooper Artist

2008    in between lines    edgar modern foreword    simple gestures    anne l cowe phd Like the artist, at first impression Jessica Cooper’s paintings are strikingly confident  and forthright. Their beautifully concise lines and decisive forms, however, belie their subtle ambiguities and … find out more

2008 . interview . student . niky dix

Jessica Cooper Artist

2008    interview student    niky dix What made you decide to be an artist? Aged about 4 yrs. old I drew a card of an interior for my dad and inside I wrote “dear daddy when I grow up I want … find out more

2007 . art now cornwall . text . susan daniel mcelroy : sara hughes . tate st ives

Jessica Cooper Artist

2007    art now cornwall    tate st ives text    susan daniel mcelroy    sara hughes Jessica Cooper has been eliminating colour in her recent paintings, paring down the representation of objects and vessels to form, tone and line against a shallow … find out more

2007 . introduction : sarah stoten . box set of 10 x cards

Jessica Cooper Artist

2007    box set of ten cards introduction    sarah stoten Jessica Cooper    RWA This selection of images of jessica cooper’s paintings, personally chosen by the artist, provides a wonderful opportunity to enjoy her work. Jessica knows intuitively where to place line … find out more

2006 . foreword . chloe wild . the stour gallery

Jessica Cooper Artist

2006    the stour gallery foreword    chloe wild Tucked away amongst the granite of Penwith, Jessica Cooper has lived and worked in the isolation of Britain’s most south westerly outcrop of land for most of her life. Her connection with Cornwall … find out more

 

 

 

 

 

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