Art Works

Whilst sharing a studio space in Hastings, Jon and artist Kate Adams began a conversation about how to enable young people, even those with the most complex needs, to make art on their own terms, within their own, individual sphere of ability. This was a simple proposition but illusive as a motive for making art in collaboration with others. It aimed at a kind of record of engagement through mark making, rather than a way of intentionally making art and yet many of the images made have huge vitality, power and aesthetic balance.

Kate Adams - from Anthology PAW 1997 - 2012

 

Project Paul

In Project Paul, Jon and Kate tested their ideas for 'Art Works' during two ten day residencies in schools for children with severe learning difficulties (SLD): Glyne Gap SLD School in Eastbourne and Hazel Court SLD School in Eastbourne.

Kate Adams - from Anthology PAW 1997 - 2012

Barcelona

Accompanied Caroline to Barcelona where she was to study as part of her MA in European Fine Art. The exchange was organised by Winchester School of Art. Unlike Caroline, Jon was not enrolled on the course, he used his time in Barcelona to research and to paint.

Whilst in Barcelona Jon befriended Phillip Harvey and Andrew Milne-Hume, who were also taking part in the MA exchange course. He photographed several of the works completed during this period which are shown below;

1. Ben & steps of santa maria del mar 2. installation, tent and drawing 3. 40 jc's and steps installation 4. steps of santa maria del mar (close up) 5. installation tent and painting 6. rubbing of studio floor 7.  rubbing of studio floor (close up) 8. installation 9. 40 JC's 10. steps of santa maria del mar

Jon completed 40 JC drawings which were based on postcards sold in churches in Barcelona, especially those from the Santa Maria del Mar church

Royal Overseas League

Untitled   oil on canvas   122.5 x 122.5cm

Untitled   oil on canvas   122.5 x 122.5cm

11th Annual Open Exhibition 1994 at Over-Seas House, London from the 7th - 18th September and then at the Edinburgh College of Art from the 10th - 28th October. Jon's 'Untitled" picture was selected and chosen as a prizewinner for the Travel Scholarship, a £1000 prize to be spent on a study trip to another country. Jon chose to spend the money on a trip to Barcelona. A number of other artists including Jon's good friend Richard Mosek exhibited in this Open exhibition.

There's Blood on the Motor

A Retromobile Classic, Battersea, London This was a group show held at the Citroen Garage, Battersea London. It was described as 'Cars and Art' or more interestingly 'There's Blood on the Motor'

The Baptist and the Sea

An exhibition of paintings by Jonathan Cole

1-26 February 1994, Riviera Gallery Pelham Arcade Hastings

In his statement Jon wrote:

'Painting has become my way in life. I have concentrated on this more than anything else'.

'When I was young I thought life would be acceptable if one had an obsessive vocation. At first, I thought I would be a missionary, and then a farmer accompanying my father on his preaching journeys, I would again be a missionary, briefly a footballer, and later a farmer. So I wrote poems and drew apocalyptic pictures to describe the breadth of ways. Art can be a method; or a methodical way to make parts of the whole from one place. It is clear to me now that in the unknowing of childhood, creativity and individuality are attempts to make tangible the notion that life ahead could be a natural, or a spiritual way'.

'Painting is an idea. It is this idea of belief; that painting might provide a lucid passage through life, and pictures themselves may be a vehicle; to provide room for belief'.

Jon displayed 15 paintings.

 

The Art critic Ron Skibbard in his forward to the exhibition wrote:

“As technology snowballs, our culture has been left eternally chasing, trying to catch up. As a result we have deteriorated into a culture of one-liners, of short hits; immediacy junkies with no time to stop. No time for consideration. No time for stillness. Our traditional values and beliefs have been rejected but without being replaced by anything other than temporary materialism. The majority of artists seeking to come to terms with this do so by looking back, re-examining the residue of our culture, by nomadically wandering through the histories of art and looking to newly opened up (to us) cultures in an attempt to make some sense of this predicament. Jonathan Cole's paintings attempt to confront this crushing lack of belief. These paintings make no attempt to inspire with subliminal imagery but are concerned with language, the surface language of paint. He presents us with an image of the sea or an image inspired from the Bible. In effect we are presented with a blank canvas, a space in or on which to act - to create. Here is the sea, here is a relic of Christianity that has shaped our culture ... here is nothing, nothing more than a painting. The painting of religious relics are an acknowledgement of the currently largely discredited patriarchal system, but they seek to recover the humility of belief - to acknowledge the privacy of faith by making the paintings flat and upfront, literally in your face. The surface nature of the paintings, the way they are painted, defies getting lost in them. However, the obsessive nature of the imagery and of the marks, coupled with the very emptiness of the paintings, intrigues, they cannot be dismissed as a continuation of seascape tradition. When confronted by religious imagery or imagery of the sea we have a ready made package of answers to avoid dealing with them, however the honesty of these paintings, their lack of irony and cynicism, compels us to question.”

Sanctum Sanctorum

At the Camden Film Co-Operative

Jon joined Diana Mavroleon, his brother Tim and a host of others in an event that combined expanded cinema, painting, sculpture, ceramics and live music at the London Film Co-Op, London. The evening commenced with a hush and darkness and then Jon, unclothed and carrying a metal ladder, paint and paintbrush, walked to the front of the building and proceeded to paint out the huge mural which he had executed previously. The whitened plaster surface then became screen and backdrop for the events of the evening. Memorable.

Sanctum Sanctorum was part of the London Film Festival at the The London Film Makers' Co-Op. It was billed as featuring expanded Cinema, Installation and Performance. “We are working with themes that illuminate levels of doubt, optimism, ritual, profanity, sensuality, pagan, fetish, archaic, death, low-life and eclecticism.” wrote Diana