INTRODUCTION
Painting can often be a solitary pursuit, with the artist working alone in the studio or with the subject en plein air . Hours and days are spent thinking, looking and making decisions, before the first brush-strokes appear. Jack never feels alone though, and the title of this exhibition, much like the title of our book, reflects his relational and convivial approach to painting, and his seeking out the working company of other artists as part of his own creative process. When Jack stands before a blank canvas, looking to convey something of a scene, a subject, an emotion or simply something of himself, it is to the artists he admires most that he turns, starting conversations and making insights that find their way back into his own paintings. Jack’s studio is a lively place - with Rembrandt, Vermeer, Caravaggio, Monet, Singer Sargent, Picasso, Rivers and Blake all regularly ‘making an appearance’. When embarking upon a lilypond painting it is to Monet that Jack turns, seeking out what first fascinated him all those years ago about the irridescent pads floating on the reflective, watery depths. The painting process soon becomes a lively conversation about ways of seeing between Jack, Monet and the lilypond, a tacking back and forth between looking at the subject, trying to see what Monet saw and then looking back at the subject again. Thinking out the beginnings of a large studio composition, Larry Rivers’ great gestural oil collages are the topic of conversation, and in the cafés and parks of Paris, Jack seeks out the company of another group of artists - Renoir and the Impressionists this time. Different influences and different conversations, but always the same commitment to the idea that carrying something valuable forward is preferable to wiping the slate clean. The challenge for artists has always been to find new ways of expressing time-honoured subjects and Jack has developed an artistic voice that is uniquely his, but that shows continuity between the art of the past and his own work in the present. Paintings in each of his genres reveal the many conversations he has had with his ecumenical group of studio companions and we hope that you enjoy seeing the fruits of them in this exhibition.
Eileadh Swan Gallery Director
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