Large Honister Crag

Large Honister Crag 2003-4, oil on canvas by Julian Cooper (1947–).

Julian Cooper is one of Cumbria’s leading artists and is regarded as one of the most original and thought provoking mountain painters working today. This recent painting is one of a series by the artist based on the old slate quarry at Honister Crag in the Lake District. Cooper has looked closely at mountains and rock formations for many years and in this painting attempts to convey the sense of awe we associate with seeing mountains. The painting itself is monumental in scale and was made in the artist’s studio from small studies made on the spot over a period of time, photographs and memory.

Julian Cooper was born in Grasmere in 1947; the son of William Heaton-Cooper and the grandson of Alfred Heaton-Cooper, both well known Lake District landscape painters. Cooper studied at Lancaster School of Art (1964–5), Goldsmith’s College of Art (1965) and in 1969 was awarded the Boise Travelling Scholarship and was resident at the British School at Rome. He has exhibited widely both at home and abroad and his work is represented in numerous collections. A major retrospective of his work took place in 2005 at the Museo Nazionale Della Montagna in Turin. Large Honister Crag was included in the major Picture of Britain exhibition at Tate Britain, London, in 2005.