True to Form 15 November - 5 December 2014

Julia Cooper - Ben Lowe - Diana Matthews FRSA - Jane Wheeler

3 - 4 Bartlett Street Bath BA1 2QZ

Opening hours:Monday to Saturday 10am - 6pmWednesday 2pm - 6pmClosed on Sunday

www.davidsimoncontemporary.comgallery@davidsimoncontemporary.com

01225 460189

Contents

Julia Cooper .......................................... 4 - 9

Ben Lowe .......................................... 10 - 13

Diana Matthews FRSA ..................... 14 - 20

Jane Wheeler .......................................... 22 - 26

True to Form15 November - 5 December 2014

This exhibition features three painters, Julia Cooper, Ben Lowe & Diana Matthews FRSA, who enjoy exploring the finest line between the figurative and the abstract, pulling forms out of abstraction. The exhibition is accompanied by a selection of stoneware ceramics by Jane Wheeler.

Bitter Lemonoil on canvas61 x 71cm£1,250

Julia Cooper is based on the south coast of Cornwall, her studio overlooking a busy harbour. This latest series of paintings concentrates on kitchen still-lifes painted in oil. Surfaces are washed with colour then scored, scraped back or obliterated to create an interesting narrative which allows her to explore colour and rhythm. Whether abstract or figurative the image is discovered through this process.

Julia Cooper trained in Fine Art as well as Interior Design and has exhibited her work widely in the United Kingdom. She has recently been working on a large project with the National Trust in creating paintings for their holiday cottage refurbishments.

Julia Cooper

5

Corianderoil on canvas78 x 98cm£1,950

Bollingeroil on board38 x 48cm£750

6

Aperitifoil on board22 x 28cm£475

Manzanillaoil on board22 x 28cm£475

Picholineoil on board22 x 28cm£475

Fragataoil on board22 x 28cm£475 7

Sage oil on board22 x 28cm£475

Hazelnutoil on board22 x 28cm£475

Vanillaoil on board22 x 28cm£475

8

Walnutoil on board22 x 28cm£475

Cinnamonoil on board38 x 49cm£750

9

Ben Lowe’s work uses layers of abstract forms to capture atmosphere and emotion through landscape painting. One of six finalists in BBC2’s ‘School of Saatchi’ – a significant achievement considering that he his largely self-taught, but yet he has developed a unique and powerful style.

Ben Lowe

Wilkkommenoil on board68 x 62cm£1,250

10

Count Them Inoil on canvas100 x 100cm£3,250

11

Landscape Ioil on panel80 x 95cm£2,500

12

Landscape IIoil on panel70 x 100cm£2,700

13

Diana Matthews trained at Bath Academy of Art under William Scott, Antony Fry, Gillian Ayres and Peter Lanyon. She then went on to teach fine art at various institutions and now paints full-time and exhibits her work regularly in London.

Diana Matthews FRSA

Jug and Compoteoil on board25 x 35cm£1,000

14

Brown Bottleoil on canvas45 x 55cm£1,200

15

Transient Still Life IVoil on board45 x 55cm£1,200

16

Transient Still Life IIIoil on board45 x 55cm£1,000

17

Symmetry In Space VIoil on board with ink44 x 50cm£1,200

Symmetry In Space VIIoil on board with ink29 x 25cm£1,000

18

Jug and Plateoil on board34 x 45cm£1,000

Jug and Dishesoil on canvas39 x 28cm£1,200

19

Intermezzooil on board24 x 38cm£1,000

20

21

Jane Wheeler

Jane Wheeler was born and raised in Norfolk and stucied ceramics at Bath Academy of Art, Corsham. She returned to ceramics in 2003.

For Jane, the vessel is a space-containing hollow form that offers the richest language for working in clay. Its conceptual simplicity allows readings which allude to our most distant cultural pasts, and to the state of being human. Its limitations are those for which the potter’s tools and equipment are designed; it is a familiar scenario within which to work. Thus, it becomes necessary for Jane Wheeler to make working and the work uncomfortable in some way, to push the boundaries in order to attempt discovery of new or hidden qualities of this profoundly significant, yet ordinary object.

Jane’s vessels are made of stoneware clay bodies with added coarse grog, sand, quartz and feldspar granules. reduction fired to 1260-1300 º C with gas. Layers of oxide, slip, and chun glaze producing the textured surface which both reflects and absorbs light and refracts it where the chun gathers into thick runs full of miniscule bubbles.

22

Spring Rain Bottle ceramic30 x 23cm£420

23

Spring Rain Bottle with Clematis Stemsceramic48 x 21cm£850

Spring Rain Bottle ceramic26 x 19cm£360

24

Large Black Ice Flagonceramic53 x 38cm£1,250

25

Spring Rain Bottle, Oak Stem & Acornsceramic16 x 12cm£160

Spring Rain Oak Leaf Bottleceramic20 x 16cm£190

26

27

3 - 4 Bartlett Street Bath BA1 2QZ 01225 460189

www.davidsimoncontemporary.com gallery@davidsimoncontemporary.com

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