THE STOUR GALLERY SPRING EXHIBITION

JESSICA COOPER RWA

Life Without Words - New Paintings - April 2012

Jessica Cooper RWA -

unfolding lily

75 x 80cm

Jessica Cooper’s paintings are caught in time and circumstance, with a clarity of observation and

mark making that create their own ambiguity. Making 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.

Sarah Stoten, gallery director

Jessica Cooper was elected a Royal West of England Academician in 2007. She was on the Council

of Management of Newlyn Art Gallery Cornwall 2006-2008 and from 1995 has been a painting

member of The Newlyn Society of Artists as well as a mentor of The Tate St Ives Graduate Mentoring

Scheme. She won the RWA highly Commended Award and the Drawing Quarters Award from the

University of the West of England in 2005. In 2007 her work was selected for the Tate St Ives

prestigious exhibition Art Now Cornwall.

The exhibition includes stoneware and porcelain ceramics by leading potters working in Denmark:

Anne FlØche • Priscilla Mouritzen • Hans VangsØ

Courtesy of Anita Besson - Galerie Besson, London

Anne Fløche

Hans Vangsø

Priscilla Mouritzen

Anne Fløche's stoneware is freely expressive, with a bold and broad definition of form, depth and

texture of glaze and an economic brush. Her crawling pigments and lyrically abstracted motifs enrich

the poetic charge of her pots and reveal a sensitive, gently humorous eye for the shapes and

characters of the natural world.

Hans Vangsø studied at the Jutland Academy of Fine Arts in Demark. He makes bold woodfired

pots, often square vases and large jars. He has exhibited widely in Denmark and Europe, and in

2002 was one of the artists selected for the major touring exhibition From the Kilns of Denmark which

travelled to New York, Berlin & Paris.

Priscilla Mouritzen: South African born; Priscilla had a studio in England before moving to Denmark

where she has lived and worked since. She makes delicate pinched porcelain bowls with engobe

glazes, patterned, textured and woodfired. She has exhibited widely in Europe and is a board

member of the Guldagergaard Ceramic Centre, Skælskør and the World Crafts Council Europe.

The Exhibition is online: www.thestourgallery.co.uk

Work is also available by Gallery artists including:

Modern Masters: Sir Peter Blake, Sandra Blow RA, Terry Frost RA, Bruce McLean, Jane O’Malley,

Tony O’Malley HRHA, Breon O’Casey, Barbara Rae RA.

Painters: Angela A’Court PS, Jo Ashby ARBA, Lynda Ruth Brown, James Campbell, John Emanuel, Anthony Frost,

Lavinia Gallie, Jane Gibbs, Diana Green, Michèle Griffiths, James Kerr, Janette Kerr RWA, John Pickering, Simon Pooley,

Simon Quadrat RWA, Mark Raggett ARWS, Geoffrey Robinson, Laura Sednaoui, Maggie Shaw, John Maxwell Steele,

Terry Whybrow, Penwith and Newlyn Societies.

With an extensive collection of ceramics, sculpture and jewellery.

The Gallery is open 10.00am - 5.30pm except Thursdays and Sundays

or by appointment

10 High Street, Shipston on Stour, Warwickshire, CV36 4AJ

Tel/Fax: 01608 664411 email: info@thestourgallery.co.uk