TOM MABON: SOUTHERN LANDS by Jonathan Cooper

TOM MABON Southern Lands

21 February – 9 March 2024

Jonathan Cooper 20 Park Walk London SW10 0AQ t: +44 (0)20 7351 0410 mail@jonathancooper.co.uk jonathancooper.co.uk

The room that serves as a studio seems quite empty. The pictures made during the past two years, recently collected by a cheery van driver about my age, wearing shorts. The temperature outside is -6 degrees. Ironically I am left with a work ‘in progress’ on the easel, a winter landscape of Shetland, and my thoughts turn to Bruegel’s Hunters in the Snow. It’s how I work; memory, image, connection. It often takes time for ideas to filter through and there are many false starts. The painting ‘At the Summer’s Height’ brings together a couple of drawings from a sketchbook. Mont St. Victoire was drawn as I waited for a bus outside the Victor Vasarely museum in Aix, while the window is from a drawing at our rented apartment. The iconic Cezanne motif became an obvious stumbling block. I wanted to use it but it took several years of thumbing through the sketchbook to realise a possible composition.

Hotel D’Arlatan, 2023 oil on linen 18 × 18 in (45.7 × 45.7 cm)

I tend to stack completed paintings facing towards the wall, not wanting one to dominate or influence what comes next. Occasionally I lay them out, usually on the floor. The colour palette for much of the work here is reminiscent of Morandi’s landscapes. By chance I came across an exhibition of his landscape studies in Florence. Something may have seeped in to the subconscious. Who knows? Although I have, from time to time, painted the French or Italian landscape it was Jonathan’s suggestion to take the subject as a theme for an exhibition. This is a continuation from the collection shown during lockdown. Many of the titles contain two or three words from a translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. They were added once the work was completed, before the journey south from the Black Isle. Tom Mabon December 2023

Gardens at Roussillon, 2023 oil on linen 18 × 18 in (45.7 × 45.7 cm)

Chateau at Vauvenargues. Provence, 2023 oil on linen 24 × 24 in (61 × 61 cm)

At the Summer’s Height, 2023 oil on linen 42 × 32 in (106.7 × 81.3 cm)

Below the Duomo. Barga, 2023 oil on linen 24 × 24 in (61 × 61 cm)

Beyond the Hill where Lucca hides, 2023 oil on linen 32 × 42 in (81.3 × 106.7 cm)

The Evening Bell. Beyond San Gimignano, 2023 oil on linen 24.41 × 24.41 in (62 × 62 cm)

The Sun is at the Morning Bell. Silvacane Abbey, 2023 oil on linen 24.41 × 24.41 in (62 × 62 cm)

While Daylight lasts. Lacoste, 2023 oil on linen 24 × 24 in (61 × 61 cm)

Full Moon over Roussillon, 2023 oil on linen 18 × 18 in (45.7 × 45.7 cm)

View from the Duomo. Barga, 2023 oil on linen 24 × 24 in (61 × 61 cm)

Moonrise at Roussillon, 2023 oil on linen 24 × 24 in (61 × 61 cm)

In flashing Thunder. Lourmarin, 2023 oil on linen 18 × 18 in (45.7 × 45.7 cm)

Across Tranquil Skies. Tuscany, 2023 oil on linen 18 × 18 in (45.7 × 45.7 cm)

The Day shone clear. Lake Lugano, 2023 oil on linen 18 × 18 in (45.7 × 45.7 cm)

Evening comes. Varenna, Lake Como, 2023 oil on linen 18 × 18 in (45.7 × 45.7 cm)

The broken Sunlight. Giardino de Boboli, Florence, 2023 oil on linen 14 × 18 in (35.6 × 45.7 cm)

The Road to Siena, 2023 oil on linen 12 × 16 in (30.5 × 40.6 cm)

The Harvest Month, 2023 oil on linen 24 × 24 in (61 × 61 cm)

Tuscan Fields, 2023 oil on linen 18 × 18 in (45.7 × 45.7 cm)

The Pathway through the Hills. Tuscany, 2023 oil on linen on board 12 × 16 in (30.5 × 40.6 cm)

Coloured like the Grass. Tuscany, 2023 oil on linen on board 12 × 16 in (30.5 × 40.6 cm)

The Day shone clear. San Gimignano, 2023 oil on linen on board 12 × 16 in (30.5 × 40.6 cm)

A bet ter Path to climb. Tuscany, 2023 oil on linen 10 × 10 in (25.4 × 25.4 cm)

The Hill towards that Church. Piedmont, 2023 oil on linen 10 × 10 in (25.4 × 25.4 cm)

Silvacane Abbey. In the Shadow of the Night, 2023 oil on linen 10 × 10 in (25.4 × 25.4 cm)

Before Lucca, 2023 oil on linen 10 × 10 in (25.4 × 25.4 cm)

Nightfall in the Apennines, 2023 oil on linen 8 × 10 in (20.3 × 25.4 cm)

The new Sun. Villa Collemandina, 2023 oil on linen 10 × 10 in (25.4 × 25.4 cm)

The far Horizons. Tuscany, 2023 graphite, watercolour & crayon 10.83 × 14.17 in (27.5 × 36 cm)

Church below the Alps. Piedmont, 2023 graphite, watercolour & crayon 11 × 15 in (27.9 × 38.1 cm)

On the Flowering Greens. Tuscany, 2023 graphite, watercolour & crayon 11 × 15 in (27.9 × 38.1 cm)

Darkened through Distance. Tuscany, 2023 graphite, watercolour & crayon 11 × 15 in (27.9 × 38.1 cm)

Towards the Stars. Tuscany, 2023 oil on board 8 × 10 in (20.3 × 25.4 cm)

Towards the Skies. Tuscany, 2023 oil on board 4 × 4 in (10.2 × 10.2 cm)

In Tranquil Blue. Tuscany, 2023 oil on board 4 × 4 in (10.2 × 10.2 cm)

Roussillon Study I, 2023 oil on board 5.91 × 8.27 in (15 × 21 cm)

Roussillon Study II, 2023 oil on board 6 × 8 in (15.2 × 20.3 cm)

Roussillon Study III, 2023 oil on board 6 × 7 in (15.2 × 17.8 cm)

TOM MABON Born Kirkcaldy, 1956 Gray’s School of Art 1974 – 78 Has lived on the Black Isle since 1985 SOLO EXHIBITIONS Southern Light, Jonathan Cooper, London, 2021 A Memory of the Landscape, Castle Gallery, Inverness, 2019 Time and Place, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh, 2018 Quarter Days, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh, 2015 Common Ground, Roger Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow, 2014 Before and Beyond, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh, 2013 Tom Mabon Revisited, Rendezvous Gallery, 2012 The Turning of the Year, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh, 2011 Footsteps, Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen, 2009 Quiet Places, Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen, 2006 North by Northwest, Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen, 2004 Kilmorack Gallery, 2002 Rendezvous Gallery, 2002 Kilmorack Gallery, 1999 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh, 1998 Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen, 1998 Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen, 1995 Crawford Centre, University of St. Andrew’s, 1990 Inverness Printmakers, 1990 Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 1988

AWARDS Armour Award, Royal Glasgow Institute, 2012 Morrison Scottish Portrait Award, 2nd Prize, Royal Scottish Academy, 1993 7th Cleveland (UK) International Drawing Biennale, Major Prize Winner, 1985 Latimer Award, Royal Scottish Academy, 1981 COLLECTIONS Edinburgh City Collection Fleming Collection, London Aberdeen University Robert Gordon University Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art Highland Council Scottish Maritime Museum Orkney Museum

JONATHAN COOPER