Jessica Cooper – The Long Weekend
23 May – 15 June 2024
Jessica Cooper
As the Sun Comes Up
acrylic on canvas
33 x 33cm
Jessica Cooper
Bert’s Flowers
acrylic on canvas
51 x 51cm
Jessica Cooper
Bringing Presents
acrylic on canvas
61 x 61cm
Jessica Cooper
Heard the Birds Sing | A Little Bit of Spring
acrylic on canvas
33 x 33cm £1200
Jessica Cooper
I Love You Mungo
acrylic on canvas
51 x 51cm £2500
Jessica Cooper
Underneath the Bowjey
acrylic on canvas
28 x 33cm £1200
Jessica Cooper
Make Me Coffee
acrylic on canvas
61 x 61cm £2995
Jessica Cooper
Pink Daisies
acrylic on canvas
81 x 86cm £4200
Jessica Cooper
Popping In To Say Hello
acrylic on canvas
81 x 86cm £4200
Jessica Cooper
Learning to Fly
acrylic on canvas
28 x 33cm £1200
Jessica Cooper
The Bend in the Road to Kelynack
acrylic on canvas
33 x 33cm
Jessica Cooper
Salad Days | The Icing on the Cake
acrylic on canvas
81 x 86cm £4200
Jessica Cooper
Small Coast Lines
acrylic on canvas
28 x 33cm £1200
Jessica Cooper
The Boat Yard
acrylic on canvas
33 x 33cm
Jessica Cooper
Rain Blushed Rose
acrylic on canvas
61 x 61cm
Jessica Cooper
Like I’ve Got no Better Place to Be
acrylic on canvas
28 x 33cm
Jessica Cooper
It’s Easy to Come Home
acrylic on canvas
81 x 130cm £5995
Jessica Cooper
Reminders of Childhood | Sweet Jar
acrylic on canvas
61 x 61cm £2995
Jessica Cooper
Exquisite Old Utensil Pot | This One’s For You
acrylic on canvas
81 x 86cm
Jessica Cooper
House near Kelynack I
ink on paper, unframed drawing
19.5 x 19cm
Jessica Cooper
House Near Kelynack II
ink on paper, unframed drawing
19.5 x 19cm
Jessica Cooper
House near Kelynack III
ink on paper, unframed drawing
19.5 x 19cm
Jessica Cooper
Utensils
ink on paper, unframed drawing
19.5 x 19cm £300
Jessica Cooper
Pot for a Beautiful Boy
ink on paper, unframed drawing
19.5 x 19cm £300
Jessica Cooper
Mungo I
ink on paper, unframed drawing
19.5 x 19cm £300
Jessica Cooper
Filming in Newlyn
ink on paper, unframed drawing
19.5 x 19cm £300
Jessica Cooper
Drawing for It’s Easy to Come Home
ink on paper, unframed drawing
14 x 13cm £300
Jessica Cooper
My Island
ink on paper, unframed drawing
14 x 13cm
Jessica Cooper
Drawing for Popping in to Say Hello I
ink on paper, unframed drawing
25 x 24cm
Jessica Cooper
Drawing for Popping in to Say Hello II
ink on paper, unframed drawing
25 x 24cm
Jessica Cooper
Standing Out
ink on paper, unframed drawing
25 x 24cm
Jessica Cooper
A Little Bit of This and That
ink on paper, unframed drawing
25 x 24cm £350
Jessica Cooper
Plants for I Love You Mungo
ink on paper, unframed drawing
25 x 24cm £350
Jessica Cooper
Drawing for Pink Daisies
ink on paper, unframed drawing
25 x 24cm
Jessica Cooper
Small Coastlines and the Pier
ink on paper, unframed drawing
25 x 24cm £350
Jessica Cooper
Drawing for a Natural Arboretum
ink on paper, unframed drawing
25 x 24cm £350
Jessica Cooper
Corrugated
ink on paper, unframed drawing
25 x 24cm £350
Jessica Cooper
WHA
ink on paper, unframed drawing
25 x 24cm £350
Jessica Cooper
Buoy
ink on paper, unframed drawing
25 x 24cm £350
Jessica Cooper
Finding That Place to Draw
ink on paper, unframed drawing
25 x 24cm
Jessica Cooper
Early Morning Fisherman
ink on paper, unframed drawing
25 x 24cm £350
Jessica Cooper
Wake Up Call
ink on paper, unframed drawing
25 x 24cm £350
Jessica Cooper
It’s Good to be Here
ink on paper, unframed drawing
25 x 24cm £350
Jessica Cooper
Drawing for Learning to Fly
ink on paper, unframed drawing
25 x 24cm £350
Jessica Cooper
Teaser
ink on paper, unframed drawing
25 x 24cm
Jessica Cooper
Mungo Stitched
thread and fabric
15 x 16cm
JESSICA COOPER | THE LONG WEEKEND
23 MAY – 15 JUNE 2024
Jessica Cooper’s inspiration for this collection of paintings came from a long weekend in the summer of 2023. The resultant works contemplate the enigmatic and fleeting nature of moments, the nostalgia associated with memories and the inevitability of change.
“The concept for this exhibition of paintings and drawings began one weekend in the summer of
2023.
It was a blistering hot couple of days and I remember thinking “this is going to be a long weekend”.
I visited a friend in Newlyn on Saturday to collect some succulent cuttings. She showed me around her garden – a little oasis, built into a slope that leads to boat yards, buildings and then down to the sea.
When I saw the plants, I got that irresistible feeling of wanting to draw, which I did and on the walk home I stopped to take photos of the harbour and bay as it was such a still and lovely day.
On the Sunday, I visited a second friend who lives on the other coast at Kelynack, near Lands End. We sat in the cool, old kitchen of her farmhouse, away from the sun. As we chatted and drank coffee, I noticed the beautiful items around the room, from chairs to old container jars and for the second time that weekend, I felt that irrevocable urge to draw. Driving home, I knew that this weekend had given me the inspiration I needed for my exhibition at Cornwall Contemporary and over the following months in the studio, I thought about the notion of time and how our perceptions and feelings can shift and change, and that really ‘the long weekend’ could go on forever. I returned to these two places many times to draw.
The first painting in this series of work was The Long Weekend – a vase of flowers in my studio. It helped lead me into the painting process, giving me the confidence in my ideas and the clarity to paint. The last painting It’s Easy to Come Home, completed in April 2024 is of the island in St. Ives. I had stopped to look at this special place and it consequently made me think about the end of the
show and what would come next. In both my professional practice and personal life, flowers and the island in St. Ives, have always been two constants, so it felt very affirming to have these two work representing the start and the finish.
Whatever the subject matter in this show; be it a garden of iconic shaped, blooming plants, a house popping up around a bend in the road, a fishing boat at one with its harbour, or an exquisite old utensil pot on a table; the forms act as vessels or containers which hold emotion and feeling for me and encapsulate life within the work.”
Jessica Cooper, May 2024
One of Cornwall’s leading contemporary artists, Jessica Cooper studied at Falmouth College and Goldsmith’s London.
She exhibits regularly including exhibitions at Exchange and Newlyn Art Galleries and Tate, St. Ives.
She is an RWA (Royal West of England Academician) and a member of the NSA (Newlyn Society of Artists) and her work is
held in numerous private and public collections worldwide.
