Jonathan Shearer ‘Autumn into Winter’
A Solo Exhibition of new paintings by one of Scotland’s most exciting and expressive landscape painters. From 20th March to 18th April
His new Solo Exhibition at the Strathearn Gallery in Crieff focusses on the dramatic seasonal changes between last Autumn and Winter and charts Jonathan’s experiences during this time. His pieces are always based on a true experience of his excursions, no matter how abstract or expressive they become. This is not a painter who will paint a place he has never been to or doesn’t know intimately.
As with the majority of his work, Jonathan has completed this entire new collection of paintings on location, outside, ’ en plein air’. Despite the logistical challenges this presents, including dealing with the elements during the most unforgiving seasons of the year, Jonathan thrives on the exhilaration and physical sensation of being out in the Scottish wilderness; “often the journey into the remoter parts is a medative experience for me. You lose all concept of time and get a sense of your place in the greater scheme of things, amongst mountains that are billions of years old.”
Jonathan paints quickly with thick oil paint using brushes, trowels and his hands to captureeachscene. Asaresult,hispaintingshavearealrawqualitythatconveythetexture and physicality of the Highland landscape and what is happening in that very moment. Something Jonathan feels he is unable to achieve through working from photographs.
“‘Autumn into Winter’ documents my painting excursions from the end of last year into this year. Before lockdown, locations varied from Skye, Kintail, Lochaber and Wester Ross however since December, I focussed on locations like Loch Glass, Fyrish and Strathrusdale. All local to me and accessible on foot or by bike. My hope is the paintings capture the sense of place, the unique quality of light and the physical nature of the landscape - the transition from Autumn into Winter, a sort of poetry of place. It takes effort and preparation to work in situ and the elements can be more than challenging but this all feeds into the work - the physical sensations of the wind in your face, sinking in a bog or the crashing waves are all part of the exhilaration of wild places. Hopefully this exhibition shows something of the sublime of the Scottish Highlands in Autumn and Winter”
At the age of 11, Jonathan Shearer moved with his family from the suburbs of London to the Scottish Highlands. Although many might have stuggled to adjust to such a change, Jonathan immediately felt a deep connection with the Scottish landscape, its vast skies, the sea and the weather and he’s been painting it ever since.
After graduating from Grays School of Art in Aberdeen in 1993, followed by some time in Cyprus as a post-graduate student (where he met his wife),Jonathan returned to Scotland to become a full-time artist.
Since then, Jonathan has built up a reputation as an artist of outstanding talent, with many sell out shows across the North of Scotland. An artist who will regularly go to extremes in pursuit of his craft, Jonathan prefers to avoid the warmth and comfort of a studio as far as possible and often disappears for days on end into the remotest parts of the Highlands - sleeping in bothies or camping wild before returning with his specially adapted backpack full of new paintings. Each one capturing the beauty and majesty of the places he has visited. In his own words,“you just have to get out there.”