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Jonathan Hooper

Painter

“I am interested in colour and form – in the modernist experiment with pure pictorial elements. Also in the mechanics of representation – how marks become things, places and people. The push-and-pull of abstraction and realism.

The paintings are a bit like portraits: I want them to be honest, but still to show the subject at its best. I look for an emotional as well as a visual truth. And to show the enduring character of the subject, as well as how it happens to look at a particular moment. I am not drawn to grand buildings, which are already self-conscious works of art: nor to the aesthetics of decay. I want to show directly the beauty and individuality of the places around us – where we live, work, shop and take our leisure.

I find my subjects on walks through the city, taking photos and making notes. I print my photos in black-and-white, developing colour and composition in watercolour drawings before painting. While I am working, I walk past the subject most days to refresh my impressions of it and think through problems in the paintings. “ Jonathan Hooper