James Lynch A Parallel Reality
James Lynch A Parallel Reality
Jonathan Cooper 20 Park Walk  London  SW10 0AQ t: +44 (0)20 7351 0410 mail@jonathancooper.co.uk jonathancooper.co.uk
James Lynch James Lynch’s luminous paintings are imbued with his wonder and delight in the English countryside. Bright shafts of sun stream onto the rolling hills below, the wind breezes through crops on the downs, and birds soar through lightfilled skies. It is no surprise to learn that James is a keen paraglider pilot, and that many of these paintings are inspired by his flights above the counties of Somerset, Wiltshire and Dorset. As an inhabitant of both earth and sky, James is fascinated by the interaction between the two. In his paintings these parallel worlds intersect and echo each other – billowing clouds mirror hedgerows below and puddles reflect the skies above. Many paintings chart the traces of man on the landscape – the medieval spire of Salisbury Cathedral
or a barn on the edge of a field. There is also a red post van, a rotavator in a garden, power lines, an aeroplane’s vapour trails… and these contemporary references anchor the paintings in the present day. Nevertheless, there is a timelessness in all the works, which places them firmly in the great English tradition of Samuel Palmer, John Minton and Eric Ravilious, and this is enhanced by the glowing medium of egg tempera which James uses, more often found in the Renaissance churches of Italy than rural England. In this new collection there is a sense of tranquillity, where past and present coexist, where time stands still. But look a little further and you find movement in the air, pathways, journeys – and parallel realities.
1.
Messages in the Landscape, The Post Van, Parrock Hill E g g t e m p e r a o n g e s s o c o a t e d w o o d p a n e l 4 8 . 2 Ă— 5 8 . 3 c m / 19 Ă— 2 3 i n
Early March. A chance encounter with the post van, a welcome splash of red, but so much more. The little van is full of
letters - not a relic yet. And the telegraph pole with its wires carries the invisible. Messages in the landscape.
2.
The Merry Month of May E g g t e m p e r a o n g e s s o c o a t e d w o o d p a n e l 4 8 . 2 × 71 c m / 19 × 2 8 i n
It’s a fine May evening. Barrow Hill, between North and South Cadbury in Somerset, an ancient landscape. There’s the roar of traffic from the A303 on the other side of the hill, but there
are old stories underfoot - an impressive Bronze Age shield was unearthed close by. The little clump of trees reach for the towering cumulus climbing thousands of feet up.
3.
Ted’s Greenhouse, Summer E g g t e m p e r a o n g e s s o c o a t e d w o o d p a n e l 4 8 . 2 × 61 c m / 19 × 2 4 i n
A greenhouse in a garden, harnessing the sun. There’s the reflection of the blue infinity of
sky on the glass roof and a blue plastic box on the shelf which I painted with lapis lazuli.
4.
Salisbury Cathedral E g g t e m p e r a o n g e s s o c o a t e d w o o d p a n e l 5 6 Ă— 10 6 . 5 c m / 2 2 Ă— 4 2 i n
28 February. Huge blustery showers. I parked up at the racecourse and walked along field edges to the slopes overlooking Salisbury, dodging the rain
under trees. I was hunting a good view of the cathedral. On the way back I was buzzed by a helicopter.
5.
The Bright Cloud Egg tempera on gesso coated wood panel 44.5 × 55.9 cm / 17.5 × 22 in
It’s been a day of low cloud and rather humid but then the cloud breaks, there’s the blue above
and rays of sunlight. This is the Somerset Levels, a floodplain with vast skies.
6.
Convergence over Poole Harbour E g g t e m p e r a o n g e s s o c o a t e d w o o d p a n e l 81. 3 Ă— 101. 5 c m / 3 2 Ă— 4 0 i n
Poole Harbour and Brownsea Island, as seen flying with my paraglider, surfing the sea breeze. The cold sea air converges with the warm air inland, paragliders love it and
so do seagulls. There are routes in this painting, pathways on land and pathways through the sky. I ran out of land and ended up at Swanage that June day, on a tip of the land far right.
7.
Towering Cumulus, September E g g t e m p e r a o n g e s s o c o a t e d w o o d p a n e l 2 3 Ă— 3 0 . 5 c m / 9 Ă— 12 i n
8.
Jet E g g t e m p e r a o n g e s s o c o a t e d w o o d p a n e l 2 3 × 3 0 . 5 c m / 9 × 12 i n
9.
Shafts of Sunlight I E g g t e m p e r a o n g e s s o c o a t e d w o o d p a n e l 2 3 × 3 0 . 5 c m / 9 × 12 i n
10.
Shafts of Sunlight II E g g t e m p e r a o n g e s s o c o a t e d w o o d p a n e l 2 3 × 3 0 . 5 c m / 9 × 12 i n
11.
Summer Storm E g g t e m p e r a o n g e s s o c o a t e d w o o d p a n e l 2 3 × 3 0 . 5 c m / 9 × 12 i n
12.
The Steam Fair E g g t e m p e r a o n g e s s o c o a t e d w o o d p a n e l 4 8 . 2 Ă— 61 c m / 19 Ă— 2 4 i n
Leaving the Steam Fair behind. The noise and bustle, steam organ and whistles are fading,
not of this century. Distant wisps of smoke from another age.
13.
Cloud Suck, Mere, Wiltshire - A Parallel Reality E g g t e m p e r a o n g e s s o c o a t e d w o o d p a n e l 4 8 . 2 × 71 c m / 19 × 2 8 i n
April 29. There is a brisk wind, it’s now too strong to fly. The cumulus in the middle is the
one I should have been under but I am on the ground with concussion.
14.
The Three Graces E g g t e m p e r a o n g e s s o c o a t e d w o o d p a n e l 4 8 . 2 × 6 3 . 5 c m / 19 × 2 5 i n
When I saw these apple trees in blossom at Parrock Hill, Dorset, I was reminded of Botticelli’s Three Graces. Then, as I was painting them back in
my studio, a strange black and white cat made a sudden appearance in our garden, I’d never seen it before and haven’t seen it since.
15.
Half Moon and Cirrus Clouds over Glastonbury Tor E g g t e m p e r a o n g e s s o c o a t e d w o o d p a n e l 4 8 . 3 × 5 8 . 5 c m / 19 × 2 3 i n
Glastonbury Tor and other pimply hills on the floodplain of the Somerset Levels. There are days when a thick soupy mist covers the land like a sea and they
become small islands. But this is the end of a summer’s day , the last of the cumulus clouds are dispersing and high cirrus clouds become angels with spread wings.
16.
The Ladder and the Moon, Spring Equinox E g g t e m p e r a o n g e s s o c o a t e d w o o d p a n e l 4 8 . 2 × 5 8 . 3 c m / 19 × 2 3 i n
A friend’s garden, giant leeks, the tail end of winter. The rotavator is at the ready to till
the plot for the new planting. Endings and beginnings. There are journeys here...
17.
The Weathercock Egg tempera on gesso coated wood panel 73.5 × 96.5 cm / 29 × 38 in
The wind-battered weathercock, veering and backing with the approaching weather fronts.
St. Mary’s, Huish Episcopi, is the churchtower in the distance and home to the doves.
18.
The Red Brick House E g g t e m p e r a o n g e s s o c o a t e d w o o d p a n e l 2 3 Ă— 3 0 . 5 c m / 9 Ă— 12 i n
A walk along the ridge we live on, this little red brick house below is a local landmark. I used to enjoy talking to a local man,
Fred, who once grew vegetables in the field adjacent and delivered them locally in a small green van.
Perhaps my paintings have always been about ‘parallel realities’
At one o’clock on April 29 this year I was found with concussion on a hillside near Mere in Wiltshire. I had apparently been there for at least an hour. I knew nothing about this until coming round in Salisbury A&E that evening, some eight hours later. Afterwards, looking at my GPS Tracklog, I saw I had landed, then been dragged 300 yards overland by my paraglider in a strong wind. I visited the spot a few days later and there was a wonderful view looking north. The painting ‘Cloud Suck’ is my version of the weather as
it would have been that afternoon when I was physically there but with no memory of the moment. I suppose I had been in a parallel reality. And it set me thinking: perhaps my paintings have always been about ‘parallel realities’ – the conjunction of the seen and unseen, the interplay of natural forces and man’s intervention in the landscape. Each of my paintings is the distillation of a place at a moment in time. I make sketches on the spot, take photographs, pace it out. Then, back in the studio I work on a composition, playing with the
natural and man-made geometry on the land, and cloud formations, shafts of sunlight, perhaps the moon, in the sky. The composition is not always literal - memory and imagination come into it. The process of egg tempera painting is one of slow layering. I make my own gesso ground from rabbit skin glue and whiting according to a traditional recipe, painting several layers of the creamy paste onto a wood panel as the support for the painting. The paints are made from the raw ground pigments, egg yolk and water. I use eggs from my own hens. It’s a watery paint and I move from a
‘leaner’ mix with less yolk in the early stages of the painting, to a ‘fatter’mix with a little more yolk in the later stages. Each painting is the result of scores of glazes, building up the brilliant richness of colour slowly. These layers are translucent, allowing light to bounce back from the underlying white gesso ground. Egg tempera is very light-fast and does not darken and yellow over time as oil paintings can. It is a living medium with a unique glow, which is what I particularly love about it.
James Lynch, August 2017
C U R R I C U LU M V I TA E James Lynch, born 1956, grew up in Devizes, Wiltshire. Lives on the Somerset Levels.
Exhibitions 2017
2004
1998
‘A Parallel Reality’ Jonathan Cooper, London jonathancooper.co.uk
Black Swan, Frome, Somerset
Retrospective, Mompesson House, Salisbury, Wiltshire (National Trust Foundation for Art)
2001, 2003
2014
Maas Gallery
1991, 93, 95, 97
‘There never was a Finer Day’ Jonathan Cooper, London
2000
2011
Alpha House Gallery, Sherborne, Dorset
‘The Inhabited Landscape’ Jonathan Cooper, London
1999
Maas Gallery
Maas Gallery 1988
Odette Gilbert, London 1984, 85, 86
Nevill Gallery, Bath
2006
Maas Gallery, London
1983
Linfield Galleries, Bradford-on-Avon
A l s o re p re s e n t e d i n t h e f o l lo w i n g g ro u p s h o w s :
Christie’s and Agnews, London; Galerie Michael, Beverley Hills, USA; National Trust Foundation for Art Exhibitions; Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions, and others. Publications
There Never Was a Finer Day, pub. Furlong Fields Publishing in collaboration with Jonathan Cooper 2014; Skylines, pub. Furlong Fields Publishing 2006; Illustrations for The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, pub. Folio Society 1995.
C o l le c t i o n s
Chatsworth House; C. Hoare & Co.; National Trust Foundation for Art (Chartwell, Kent; Kingston Lacy, Dorset; Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire); South West Heritage Trust, Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury; Wessex Collection, Longleat House; and other private collections. james-lynch.co.uk
above
Looking South from Stoke Camp, Mendip Hills, Somerset,2017 Egg tempera on gesso coated wood panel 71 × 3 0 4 c m / 2 8 × 12 0 i n
Commissioned painting sponsored by The Friends of the Somerset Rural Life Museum, The Golden Bottle Trust and the South West Heritage Trust
J a m e s Ly n c h i n h i s s t u d i o , A u g u s t 2 017
f ro n t a n d b a c k c o v e r
6 . Convergence over Poole Harbour (detail)
i n s i d e f ro n t c o v e r
9 . Shafts of Sunlight I (detail)
right
8 . Jet (detail)
Jonathan Cooper 20 Park Walk  London  SW10 0AQ t: +44 (0)20 7351 0410 mail@jonathancooper.co.uk jonathancooper.co.uk
Jonathan Cooper