Walking around his gallery in Drift near Penzance, it’s hard not to be struck by the vitality of the Cornish scenes Jeremy has captured on canvas.
The artist works solely in oils, allowing him a broad, luxuriant application of paint which satisfies his desire to represent colour and light with accuracy. He uses fragments of credit cards, creating a tool with similar qualities to that of a palette knife – a method which brings this decidedly traditional artistic medium right into the 21st century.
Often painted ‘live’ whilst the scene unfolds before him, his work is largely focused on capturing vibrant scenes of people living and working in Cornwall and recreating exciting cultural events, such as Flora Day, Mazey Day and even our very own Midsummer Beacon Lighting.
Born in South Wales in 1969, Jeremy studied at St Martin’s School of Art, graduated from the University of the West Country with a first-class honours degree, and was a Prince’s Youth Business Trust gold medal winner.
His work has featured widely on television programmes including Kay Mellor’s “Between the Sheets” and Julie Burchill’s drama “Sugar Rush”. The fashion brand Fat Face has used his paintings for a worldwide campaign, and he has completed commissions for NatWest Insurance, Saga Ruby, Tui Celebration and Cunard Queen Victoria cruise liners. The last of these was launched by HRH the Prince of Wales, who has personally acknowledged Jeremy’s mentoring work for the Prince’s Trust.
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They call it ‘en plein air’ – it’s a French phrase which means painting in fresh air, ‘painting outdoors’. Why would you work in the studio when you’re surrounded by such beauty?
So, a lot of what I do now is painting from life, which is when you can get a feel of the atmosphere. You really do get a sense of life exposed. You have to work and react very quickly when you’re painting from life; there’s no opportunity to overwork the picture.
Every artist has a style, and I feel [being the Artist in Residence] is really going to push me both in terms of scale and treatment of work. I still think I’m very much going to be painting figures and keeping it about the people that use and work in your sites, but also, I want to stretch myself a bit and start using different materials. It’ll be nice to see how the sites change over the seasons and having them populated as well, both with your Rangers and visitors.
Stone circles used to leave me a bit cold, because I’m very much interested in people, but having spent time out quietly on my own, its all beginning to click. It really is a new subject matter to me. I’ve been known for years for painting urban and city scenes. Coming down here, I flipped that and thought, “Well, let’s do the traditional; I’m in Cornwall. Let’s paint boats and harbours.” But what I find exciting and challenging about working with you is that this is a direction that I haven’t taken myself towards before. It’s giving me the opportunity to really get under the skin of a bit of Cornwall that few people know about and to showcase what you guys do.
Our paths first crossed a couple of years ago at the Sancreed Midsummer Beacon Lighting. It was one of those balmy summer evenings, and I thought, “I’d love to paint my figures there”. It’s a place that’s very local to me. There’s something about heights and being on the top of hills. Particularly, on the night when you light the beacon, there is something so atmospheric – bringing communities together, traditions together. I find what you guys are doing in reintroducing the traditions that maybe have slipped away inspiring, and to have the opportunity for me to record that in different ways is a bit of a privilege, actually.
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It’s been a busy start to the residency for Jeremy, who has become an extremely familiar face at our heritage sites and cultural events. Keen artists even had the chance to join him at Sancreed Beacon last month to learn about en plein air painting, grow their artistic confidence and create a piece inspired by this spectacular historic landscape.
We are incredibly excited to be collaborating with Jeremy and to watch his creative process unfold. Watch this space!
