In September 2015 Jonathan Cooper Park Walk Gallery held its first solo exhibition of over 50 paintings by Nicholas Turner, RWA.
The series combined the artist’s enduring fascination with the landscape of the mind and the meditative process of painting with a new engagement with the still life genre. Arising from his admiration of the St Ives School and the living tradition of modern British art, many of these works were inspired by artistic pilgrimages to Cornwall. The memory of monuments and coastlines is captured and transformed in paintings such as Chair with Flowers, while still lifes such as White Vase celebrate the quiet stillness of the interior world, and the dramatic leap recorded in The Jump invites interpretation, rich in narrative potential. In the self portrait Man with Flowers we see Turner paying homage to his artistic forebear Christopher Wood, visiting the Ship Inn in the Cornish town of Mousehole which Wood frequented and painted. Throughout the exhibition we observe the artist’s masterful balance of colour and geometric composition as he explores themes of memory, solitude and contemplation.
