Jonathan Cooper
LILY CORBETT GALE
Flight of the alone to the Alone
Egg tempera on panel
United Kingdom
2002-2024
Signed on panel (reverse)
22.83 x 16.14ins (58 x 41cm) (artwork size) 25.59 x 18.5ins (65 x 47cm) (framed size)
description
The artist’s paintings in this exhibition are inspired by the beauty of fourteenth-century Persian miniature paintings from Shiraz, particularly anthology manuscripts of poetry, admired for their life-affirming clarity and sensitive balance of space and form. The harmony found in these works resonates with the artist’s studies under Cecil Collins, whose teaching combined technical discipline with deep feeling, empathy, and a Zen-like attentiveness to drawing, colour harmony, and creative flow.
This learning continues to inform the artist’s practice, shaping paintings with a mysterious tonality, eschewing conventional perspective in favour of a dynamic interplay of light and dark that draws the eye upward. These works are aspirational, depicting the transformation of nature and leading the viewer toward the Heavenly Realms. Guided by the idea of “seeing with the eye of the heart,” the artist seeks a purity of response akin to a child’s sense of wonder, where perception remains fresh and unlabelled.
This learning continues to inform the artist’s practice, shaping paintings with a mysterious tonality, eschewing conventional perspective in favour of a dynamic interplay of light and dark that draws the eye upward. These works are aspirational, depicting the transformation of nature and leading the viewer toward the Heavenly Realms. Guided by the idea of “seeing with the eye of the heart,” the artist seeks a purity of response akin to a child’s sense of wonder, where perception remains fresh and unlabelled.