Artist Spotlight - Jon Rowland

I worked on squatter housing in countries around the world and on regeneration projects in this country.
For me the issue, as in dealing with bidonvilles, or barrios has been to unlearn some of the conventional design approaches, whilst at the same time trying to fulfil principles of balance, composition and colour. I have always been torn between architecture and art. As my interest in art became more important, my paintings have moved from being based on places to abstracting and manipulating what I see.

Lillian Klapisch, Joan Mitchell, Richard Diebenkorn, Cy Twombly

I have always been interested in colour, but I have become more aware of the changes in my palette since the lockdown and release periods of the last 2-3 years. Reds and purples characterised my works in the first lockdown, when we were all isolated and couldn’t move from our houses providing a comforting environment.

Whereas the release periods manifested themselves in much brighter and lighter colours.

Size is a different matter. I have been fortunate enough to have been commissioned for several large-scale paintings through Wychwood and found this a liberating experience allowing a more gestural quality to emerge. Certainly, I don’t use large canvases for ‘plein aire’ – too cumbersome, however, opportunism is important, so I often take photos, sometimes sketch.