Jonathan Gibbs


“Although Jonathan Gibbs has lived and worked in Scotland for a number of years, he acknowledges the importance of the ‘churches, fields, shorelines and elements of landscape from East Norfolk, where my family comes from’.  At first sight, his paintings and engravings evoke a mid-twentieth-century mood, suggestive of territory between Ben Nicholson and Eric Ravilious – fastidious, linear and deeply sensitive to place.

"When the art historian Nikolaus Pevsner summarised ‘the Englishness of English art’ for the Reith Lectures in 1955, he chose Hogarth, Reynolds, Perpendicular architecture, William Blake, John Constable and the Picturesque movement to exemplify different aspects of national character.  It is possible to use Pevsner’s categories as a way of reading Jonathan’s work.  The Hogarth lecture ends in an account of architectural ‘dressing up’ in different styles, which could correspond to Jonathan’s facility for evoking an earlier period.  ‘Reynolds and Detachment’ is the title of the second lecture, indicating a coolness and restraint.  Perpendicular is more a visual category, in which straight lines structure an ornamental and constructional language with light pouring in.  We might think of those Norfolk churches and their delicate linearity.

"Pevsner characterises Blake with ‘flaming line’.  As painter and engraver alike, Gibbs is certainly a man of line, and like Blake, he keeps shapes and objects afloat in space in his work.  Constable and the Picturesque I will lump together.  Here we are talking about sensitive provincialism of the kind that ploughs a furrow on the same relatively narrow patch, from which a universal sensitivity to nature grows visible.

"Is all this stuff about national character divisive rubbish, or is it one of several litmus papers that we can dip into art in order to begin to understand it?  Treat it if you like as a game that we can play with Jonathan’s delightful and resilient work, as his work plays with our memories of places and other works of art.”

Alan Powers – from the introduction to Flint & Straw, Works by Jonathan Gibbs at the Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh, 2006.

Jonathan studied at Central School of Art & Design, London, and at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London.  He was a Cheltenham Fellow in Painting at Gloucestershire College of Art, and was awarded a Boise Travel Scholarship.  He is presently Head of Illustration at Edinburgh College of Art.

Read more about Jonathan's wood engravings - Table Work.

Solo Exhibitions 
 

2024
Paintings From My Shed, Rowley Gallery, London
2018
To The Jade Emperors Mountain, Rowley Gallery, London
2016
Life Is But A Dream, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2015
Curwen Gallery, London
2013
Fish Bone, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2011, 2008, 2006, 2003, 1999, 1997, 1995, 1993, 1987
Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2001, 1998, 1991, 1989, 1987, 1985
Curwen Gallery, London
2000
Frames Contemporary Gallery, Perth
Ewan Mundy Fine Art, Glasgow
1990
Stroud Festival, Gloucestershire
1989
Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival
1985
Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
1982
369 Gallery, Edinburgh
Park Gallery, Cheltenham
1981
Holsworthy Gallery, London
1980
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
1979
Camden Arts Centre, London
Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh

  • A Folk Tale by Jonathan Gibbs
  • A Murder Of Crows by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Aboriginal Crocodile by Jonathan Gibbs
  • After Apple Picking by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Alexander's by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Arrangement In Blue by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Autumn Into Winter I by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Autumn Into Winter II by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Baton Blanc by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Below The Moon by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Beneath The Moon by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Birds, Tree & Fish #2 by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Black Sheep by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Blue Morning by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Blue Room by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Book City by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Bridge & Pool by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Cassoulet by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Cats by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Choux a Go Go by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Come In by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Comic Incident by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Concentric by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Curlew River by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Dart by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Device For The Moon by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Django Tango by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Domus by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Domus by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Drawn From Life by Jonathan Gibbs
  • East Coast Line by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Eels by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Estonian Forest by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Field & Branch by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Fish & Eggs by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Fish Box by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Fish Trap by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Four Fall by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Freedom & Captivity by Jonathan Gibbs
  • From Darkness Into Light by Jonathan Gibbs
  • From Day To Night by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Garlic by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Good & Evil by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Good & Evil #2 by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Guitarra by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Head & Book by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Herringbone II by Jonathan Gibbs
  • High Rise by Jonathan Gibbs
  • His Nose, His Nose by Jonathan Gibbs
  • I Saw Three Ships by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Il Piovra by Jonathan Gibbs
  • In The Grass by Jonathan Gibbs
  • In The Room by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Kitchen Knife by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Leaf Form by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Letter Ladder by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Linia by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Man & Woman by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Market by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Moon, Tree & River by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Nature Cure by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Night Painting by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Nightingale by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Oak Tree by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Paintings From My Shed by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Pencil Eye by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Piano Man by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Pisces by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Pyramids & Temple by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Quartet by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Quercus by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Remembrance Of Things Past by Jonathan Gibbs
  • River Mouth by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Sea Defences II by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Sea Defences III by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Sea Jug II by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Sextus by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Shadow & Form by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Shutters by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Six Fish Spiral by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Small Tree by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Solis by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Spring Fish Dish by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Spring Flight by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Still Life With Eggs by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Structures In Blue by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Sturgeon by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Sun, Star & Moon by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Ten Sardines by Jonathan Gibbs
  • The Asp by Jonathan Gibbs
  • The Mountains & The Sea by Jonathan Gibbs
  • The Red & The Green by Jonathan Gibbs
  • The Red Tree by Jonathan Gibbs
  • The River & The Sea by Jonathan Gibbs
  • The Sea & The Sky by Jonathan Gibbs
  • The Source by Jonathan Gibbs
  • The Wine Table by Jonathan Gibbs
  • The Yellow & The Blue by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Threshold To The Garden by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Thrush by Jonathan Gibbs
  • To The Horizon by Jonathan Gibbs
  • To The Jade Emperor's Mountain by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Tower & Landscape by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Tree At My Window by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Tumblers by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Two Birds To Fish II by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Two Trees by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Vessels by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Whale & Elephants by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Winter Garden by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Winter Into Spring I by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Winter Into Spring II by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Winter Night by Jonathan Gibbs
  • Woman by Jonathan Gibbs