Fragmented Porthtowan Rocks and Water
Lemons, Bottle and linen
Stillness at Grebe beach
JON DORAN
RECENT PAINTINGS
27 MAY - 2 JUNE 2024
WED – SUN / 10 - 5
grays wharf gallery
Closed Weds 29th May
PRIVATE VIEW
MON 27 MAY / 7 - 9
All welcome
Jon Doran’s recent paintings are an exploration of landscape and still life subjects that focus on intense observation. Whether a cup, an arrangement of lemons or a vast landscape typifying the wildness of Cornwall.
His aim is to experience the first hand and immersive process of working from life, encountering the light, the sounds, the temperatures and the atmosphere, then to return to the studio with an oil colour study of the location. He uses these small studies to inform the tones and colours of a much larger painting - a coherent process that is connected to a historical approach to painting.
Doran often returns again and again to the North Coast, particularly to Porthtowan. It’s a location he finds profoundly interesting, for its scale, its severity, the dark rock and the range of textures. Helford Passage, Grebe Beach and Penryn River are more calm subjects that have a meditative quality to them. In these places, he experiments with painting different light qualities, such as the low warm winter sun, or a pink evening on the Penryn River.
Doran’s choice of subject is often influenced by a desire to capture a range of textures and he varies the application technique to do so. The sharpness of the rocks, the smoothness of wet sand and the coolness of the water. These scrapes, brushstrokes and textures all work together to give a sense of what it was like to stand in the location.
ABOUT JON DORAN
Jon Doran’s original oil paintings are a combination of classical themes, in a contemporary painting style. Quiet misty scenes of Cornwall, from calm rivers to impending north coast cliffs, create a sense of the sublime and are described with a unique signature process of oil painting that blends a range of textures and effects. The surface of the paintings is a variety of abstract marks that on a close inspection are a dance of rough shapes and scrapes layered onto and blending into each other, but at a distance work together to create a sense of being at the location.
His recent landscapes have a particular focus on Cornwall in winter light, where the quiet and misty atmospherics give a reflective nature to the grand locations. Figures occasionally occupy the landscape, often swimmers wading into and disintegrating into the surrounding waters.
His still life paintings explore both flower and inanimate objects in the same quiet meditative quality, but are more intimate in their nature. The subtle variations in colour and tone are a commentary on the nature of perception and the choice of subjects, be it cups, fruit or flowers, aim to find the profound in the ordinary.
The overall nature of his work is one of a calm, meditative and contemplative quietness, with a special attention to the poetics of light.