CLOSE TO HOME

ARTIST: Jonathan Hooper
CURATOR: Court Spencer
DATE: Jan - Mar 2024
VENUE: Eye Room, Leeds

The exhibition Close to Home presents a selection of paintings made over the past three years by the Leeds based artist Jonathan Hooper. Working from his home studio in Far Headingley, Jonathan starts his day with a walk around his local area where he takes photos as source material for his paintings. He focuses on houses and shops in northwest Leeds - all the subjects are within half an hour’s walk of his home.

Within his work Jonathan uses colour to create an emotional atmosphere: each painting uses a particular restricted and non-naturalistic range of colours. He develops the colour theme for the paintings in watercolour drawings and maintains it across a series of works in oils. He has the unique ability to create works that are both structured and loose, calm and energetic, and familiar yet otherworldly.

Jonathan said: “These paintings show the characteristic residential architecture of this part of Leeds: large Victorian stone houses on Otley Road in Far Headingley; post-war semi-detached houses in the Queenswood Drive area of Kirkstall; and Victorian red-brick terraces around Meanwood Road and Monkbridge Road in Meanwood. In the paintings of shops in Headingley I was looking for a subject to complement the houses: I was interested in the glimpses of interior spaces that shop-fronts offer. In one pair of paintings I looked at the front and the back of the same three shops, exploring the contrast between the ordered “public” and the more pragmatic “private” faces of the buildings.”