Julian Cooper
Paintings from 1970 - 2017
Abbot Hall Gallery Kendal
I was drawn to this exhibition for two reasons: mainly because of its association with walking which is embedded into my Body of Work and mountains, which are a particular love, but also because of his connections to Cumbria and his associations with the Heaton Cooper family. Father William Heaton Cooper and grandfather Alfred were both successful Lake District painters and the inspiration behind the Heaton Cooper Gallery in Grasmere where Julian was born in 1947. This exhibition celebrates his 70th birthday. He gained his love of mountains and disused quarries from his father who he accompanied on trips into the hills to draw rock climbing crags and the routes up them for the Fell and Rock Climbing Club guide books. These drawings are now much sought after. He is regarded as the black sheep of the faily as he didn't stick to the family tradition of the usual Lakeland genre (Greenbank 2014). He eventually began climbing and mountaineering in his own right and took his art into the mountains. He says that "When a piece of land inclines towards the vertical our relationship towards it changes. We can no longer walk on it and it cannot grow food for us. So we either ignore it, or it becomes an aesthetic object in itself, akin to a work of art, or as a visible record of time and weather and geological change".
Cooper paints on a monumental scale in oils in the field and uses equally monumental brushes to produce his work some of which are over 3 metres wide. There are 30 paintings in the show and, although a large number are of this magnitude, there are others of more modest dimensions. The range of work in the exhibition reflect his own travels. He is generally regarded as being associated with the Lake District, but there are works from his trips to South America, the Alps, the Himalayas and the quarries of Tasmania and Carrera. He says that the thing about climbing is that you have got to reach the top, but with painting its to do with the middle, the actual rock, not the climb. For this reason he often misses off the summit, so that the viewer has to look at the area within the belly of the mountain itself, its life such as this painting of Kanchenjunga.
I also particularly enjoyed his paintings of the North Face of the Eiger such as the one below which shows famous features on the traditional North Face route: the Third Icefield, The Ramp and the White Spider.
Cooper has also taken a particular interest in quarries during his carrer: in Tasmania, the marble quarries in Carerra as well as disused quarries in the Lake District some of which I have photographed myself such as the ones below of Cathedral Cavern.
A thoroughly enjoyable exhibition.
Green Bank, T. (2014) The Black Sheep of a Famous Family of Lakeland Artists, [online]. The Guardian Website, Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/09/lake-district-heaton-cooper-artist [Accessed 03/07/2017]
Cooper J (1970-2017) Various [oil on canvas] [online images] Available from:
http://www.juliancooper.co.uk/gallery.html [Accessed 03/07/2017]
Cooper paints on a monumental scale in oils in the field and uses equally monumental brushes to produce his work some of which are over 3 metres wide. There are 30 paintings in the show and, although a large number are of this magnitude, there are others of more modest dimensions. The range of work in the exhibition reflect his own travels. He is generally regarded as being associated with the Lake District, but there are works from his trips to South America, the Alps, the Himalayas and the quarries of Tasmania and Carrera. He says that the thing about climbing is that you have got to reach the top, but with painting its to do with the middle, the actual rock, not the climb. For this reason he often misses off the summit, so that the viewer has to look at the area within the belly of the mountain itself, its life such as this painting of Kanchenjunga.
A thoroughly enjoyable exhibition.
Green Bank, T. (2014) The Black Sheep of a Famous Family of Lakeland Artists, [online]. The Guardian Website, Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/09/lake-district-heaton-cooper-artist [Accessed 03/07/2017]
Cooper J (1970-2017) Various [oil on canvas] [online images] Available from:
http://www.juliancooper.co.uk/gallery.html [Accessed 03/07/2017]
No comments:
Post a Comment