ALTHOUGH rightly renowned primarily for his portrait painting, Jason Walker who works in one of the Trewarveneth Studios, Newlyn, owned by the Borlase Smart John Wells Trust, is also acclaimed for his studies of everyday objects and sensitive renderings of local landmarks, such as the Jubilee Pool and Penzance harbour.
The selection of large and small local studies, not forgetting his still life works, he is currently presenting in the Stoneman Gallery, Penzance, not only emphasise his empathy for his subject matter but also his command of tonal values and refined use of colour that lend his pictures their distinctive sense of authority and atmosphere.
An artist who studied at Falmouth College of Art, since graduating in the early 1990s, as well as being part of various solo and mixed exhibitions, he has also won a number of awards and received the honour of being made an associate member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.
A prizewinner in events ranging from the Discerning Eye Exhibition to the Hunting Art Prize, it will be remembered that a few years ago he won the Holburne Portrait Prize, was commissioned to paint Michael Eavis, founder of the Glastonbury Festival, his portrait of whom is now part of the permanent collection in the Holburne Museum in Bath, and also painted the St Ives artist Bryan Pearce, a portrait which was presented to the Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro, as part of the Bryan Pearce Bequest.
Worth recalling, too, that three years ago he was one of the 55 selected from the original entry of 1,727 to have his portrait of his wife Natalie included in an international exhibition held in the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Currently exhibiting with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters at the Mall Galleries in London, and one who will be opening his studio in Newlyn as part of this year's Open Studios event, May 28 to June 5, Jason's compassion for people goes beyond his easel and studio walls.
In early July, accompanied by three of his friends, he will be spending something like eight days or so cycling from John O'Groats to Land's End raising funds for the Children's Hospice South West.
Raffle tickets for this event will be on sale, and winner of the first prize will have the pleasure and distinction of having his or her portrait painted by Jason. Further details are on his website.
Jason is sharing the Stoneman Gallery's exhibition space with Mousehole-based Karen Wade.
An abstract artist who needs no introduction, currently featured in The Art Issue of the May edition of Cornwall Today, since returning to Cornwall some four or five years ago, Karen was brought up near Charlestown and studied at Falmouth and Dartington Colleges of Art before going to Oxford Polytechnic where she gained a degree in visual arts, she has been acclaimed for her cool and collected compositions
Paintings that have been described as being "inspired by the forms to be found among the naturally sculpted boulders that festoon the Cornish coast, and coloured by the striking shades of the county's often blue-green sea", they fully justify the claim, as it has been said, of being able "to expand and quicken the eye of the beholder".
Karen sets out and succeeds in creating a declared "sense of order and calm" in her compositions; they ask to be contemplated at leisure. Layered and lively, bold, blue and even black, they certainly reward such close attention.
Well worth seeing, admission is free, and these works by Jason Walker and Karen Wade can be seen in the Stoneman Gallery, 56 Chapel Street, Penzance, 10.30am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday, until June 4.
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