Jon Rowland

Came to Water

2021

Discover new paintings by Jon Rowland and his abstract expressionism with Wychwood Art. Each work has been carefully selected by Deborah Allan our Chief Art Curator. Wychwood Art have exhibited Jon Rowland in London during a pop-up exhibition of theirs at the Darren Baker Gallery. His paintings have been displayed at the Royal Academy and at the Berthold and Darren Baker Gallery in London. He has also exhibited in group exhibitions at Linacre and Green Colleges, at Swann Gallery in Woodstock, and with Wychwood Art at Battersea Art Fair. He was one of six contemporary artists who took part in an exhibition of views of Blenheim Palace, juxtaposing the original visions with today's, as part of the celebration of the 300th anniversary of Capability Brown's birth. Solo exhibitions have been at the Said Business School, Wolfson College in Central Oxford, and most recently at the Sewell Centre Art Gallery and Cornerstone Art Centre in Oxfordshire, and the Boiler Room Gallery in Central Oxford. Through Wychwood Art, he has carried out several large scale commissions for private clients. Jon comments: Painting is a journey. One starts at one place - the blank canvas, and hopefully ends at a resolution. Sometimes one gets lost. My aim in this journey is to create original, contemporary art that is grounded in place. Chance and opportunity are the travelling companions; but the art is to know when the journey is complete. I tend to work in series, with references to locations that are abstracted, reflecting on themes of colour, movement and space. In some themes I use concepts of detail to examine and manipulate emerging abstraction. The challenge is to express its essence. My work in various places, including Provence with its Mediterranean sunshine, has enabled me to explore the complementarities, juxtapositions, hues and depths of colour. Recent visits to Crete and Sicily reinforced this approach to colour and vibrancy. There, the bright pinks, yellows and turquoise of the landscape and the richness of the place itself have been important in gradually changing my palette. The pictures you see are an expression of this personal place. His work is predominantly in acrylics but increasingly mixing the media to include oil, ink, and collage. His work is colourful and distinctive.