Boogie Nights

"I enjoy all things oily and industrial. I spend my time in fishing ports and in factories, painting, sketching, taking photographs, and generally absorbing as much of the working environment as possible. I spent a day painting the ice-making unit at Newlyn Harbour. It hummed and whined so much that I thought I had developed tinnitus. I visited a turbine factory: man, machine, smell and sound akin to a scene from Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis'. The workers' canteen served a fine curry that day."

Jon takes an industrial approach to producing his large oil paintings. He uses a variety of means and tools to apply large quantities of paint, beginning with abstract shapes before introducing form to determine the composition. For fine detail, Jon might use a brush, a knife, or even an icing sugar applicator.

"I also make my own stencils which I fix to the painting and use a squeegee to pushy thick oil paint through. I enjoy trying to make paint do things that it is not supposed to do. A slab of chequer plate in actual 3D, an electric light bulb that is switched on; a rusty pipe that is decaying on the canvas, the smell of iron from a landscape of chains. A discarded glove."

Jon studied at Bath Academy of Art, and is a founder member of Arch 3 Studios in Manchester and, closer to home, Hope Cove Galleries in south Devon. His work is held in many public and private collections, including the National Museum of Labour History. He has exhibited widely throughout the UK, and in 2011 showed a large painting at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition.

Opening View: Tuesday 2 October 6 - 9 pm

www.hopecovegallery.com

For more information visit http://www.harbourhouse.org.uk/gallery-jwoolfenden12.html