Nicholas Turner The Nature of Time
Nicholas Turner The Nature of Time
Jonathan Cooper 20 Park Walk London SW10 0AQ t: +44 (0)20 7351 0410 mail@jonathancooper.co.uk jonathancooper.co.uk
1 | Fishermen oil on linen 23.6 × 23.6 ins (60 × 60 cm)
Art must mature like an apple on a tree, you cannot force the nature of time. – Pierre Bonnard All figurative paintings intrinsically engage with the theme of time. The act of representing an object fixes it before our eyes, and when we observe a work we quite naturally wonder when it was painted, which moment it depicts. Unlike a photograph, however, a painting need not be confined to the portrayal of a single instant, but can roam through time, alluding to past, present, and future at once.
When asked how long it has taken him to create a picture, Nicholas Turner lightly quotes Picasso’s reply to the same question: ‘all my life’, a statement verified by his practise of painting from memory. Sometimes images emerge directly on the canvas, at other times with preparatory thumbnail sketches, before being expanded and elaborated on from a basic composition. Colour, mark-making and shaping then become his focus. Of late detail is developed using fine drawing with brush or pencil. As he stands at the easel Turner journeys through the past, recalling experiences in Cornwall and Spain, and the landscapes observed during many hours of plein air painting, making his pictures a testament to a lifetime of memories and experiences lived.
Alongside memory, imagination has its place in his work also, and as we view his paintings we are struck by the sense that we are watching a scene from times past, populated by fishermen and flat-capped figures from a calmer age. As a painter looks, they do so not only through their own eyes, but also with those of artists who have come before, and Turner’s vision is informed primarily by the Modern British Artists of the St Ives school: Christopher Wood, Alfred Wallis, and Ben Nicholson, painters whose work he most admires, and references in his own. With them he shares a fascination for scenes of fishing boats in harbour, and table top still lifes, themes which continue to excite Turner, and in which he finds rich inspiration. Perhaps it is this fascination with and joy in his subject that makes Turner’s works so appealing, their stillness inviting us to pause, to daydream, and to enjoy the quiet beauty of the artist’s world.
2 | Table with Bottles and Apple oil on linen 19.75 × 15.75 ins (50 × 40 cm)
3 | Table with Bottles oil on linen 19.75 × 23.6 ins (50 × 60 cm)
4 | Cornish Table oil on linen 24 × 30 ins (61 × 76.2 cm)
5 | Moon, Figure and Sail oil on board 9 × 15 ins (23 × 38 cm)
6 | Anemones oil on linen 23.6 × 23.6 ins (60 × 60 cm)
7 | Valley with Chimneys oil on linen 31.5 × 39.5 ins (80 × 100 cm)
8 | Harbour Wall with Boats oil on board 12 × 12 ins (30.5 × 30.5 cm)
9 | Red Fisherman oil on linen 31.5 × 31.5 ins (80 × 80 cm)
10 | Cat with Bunting oil on linen 19.75 Ă— 23.6 ins (50 Ă— 60 cm)
11 | Boat at Sennen oil on board 8 × 10 ins (20.3 × 25.4 cm)
12 | Boats and Harbour Wall oil on linen 23.6 × 23.6 ins (60 × 60 cm)
13 | Moon and Shadow oil on linen 23.6 × 23.6 ins (60 × 60 cm)
14 | Country Lane oil on linen 19.75 × 23.6 ins (50 × 60 cm)
15 | Purple Vase oil on board 11.8 × 9.8 ins (30 × 25 cm)
16 | Vase with Flowers oil on board 12 × 12 ins (30.5 × 30.5 cm)
17 | Lane with Horse oil on linen 23.6 × 23.6 ins (60 × 60 cm)
18 | Horse on a Path oil on linen 24 Ă— 30 ins (61 Ă— 76.2 cm)
19 | Poppy Heads oil on board 12 × 10 ins (30.5 × 25.4 cm)
20 | Blue Bowl oil on linen 19.75 × 23.6 ins (50 × 60 cm)
21 | Moon oil on board 10 × 12 ins (25.4 × 30.5 cm)
22 | Blue Table oil on linen 31.5 × 31.5 ins (80 × 80 cm)
23 | The Painter’s Table oil on linen 19.75 × 15.75 ins (50 × 40 cm)
24 | Rose and Figs oil on linen 23.6 × 23.6 ins (60 × 60 cm)
25 | Yellow Sail and Lighthouse oil on board 10 × 12 ins (25.4 × 30.5 cm)
26 | White Lighthouse oil on board 12 × 12 ins (30.5 × 30.5 cm)
27 | Fisherman and Buoys oil on linen 24 × 30 ins (61 × 76.2 cm)
28 | Jug oil on linen 19.75 × 23.6 ins (50 × 60 cm)
29 | Table, Sardines and Tiles oil on linen 31.5 × 31.5 ins (80 × 80 cm)
30 | Inlet oil on board 10 × 12 ins (25.4 × 30.5 cm)
31 | Fisherman with Net oil on linen 19.75 × 23.6 ins (50 × 60 cm)
32 | Passing Time oil on linen 15.75 × 19.75 ins (40 × 50 cm)
Nicholas Turner RWA (b.1972, London) lives in Monmouthshire, Wales. After a Foundation Course in Art and Design in Bristol, Nicholas achieved a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from UWE Bristol. In 2003 he was elected an Academician of the Royal West of England Academy and has served on its governing council. He has exhibited widely and his work is held in public collections including the Royal Collection, the RWA Permanent Collection, the Talboys Bequest RWA, and numerous private collections across the UK, Japan, USA, Italy and Israel.
Jonathan Cooper 20 Park Walk London SW10 0AQ t: +44 (0)20 7351 0410 mail@jonathancooper.co.uk jonathancooper.co.uk
Jonathan Cooper