Jon Doran (1991) grew up outside London, intensely drawing, skating and surfing from a young age alongside his brother David Doran. After experiencing early success selling and exhibiting his paintings with galleries and winning the young artist award at the Cork Street Open Exhibition in London, he moved to Cornwall in pursuit of the light and wild seas.
He studied Fine Art at Falmouth School of Art, and additionally classical realism at Florence Academy Art. He now paints from his studio by the water, teaches at the renowned Newlyn School of Art and regularly explores Cornwall with his wife and three daughters.
His work can be described as a disrupted realism. Drawing on his experiences in skating and graffiti, and blending contemporary art and classical realism, his work utilises multiple visual techniques in pursuit of a reflective, contemplative sense of the sublime. The surface is often streaked with scrapes and slashes, yet as one views it from a distance, the whole is realised. His use of colour is sensitive to the poetry and logic of light working to give the elusive qualities of the Cornwall atmosphere.
Doran is deeply interested in questions around perspective and epistemology, his fragmentary nature of brushwork can be seen as a commentary on the nature of human perception, working on multiple levels - the ontological, geographical, emotional and existential.
“I believe that great art can speak to us on a deep level. On the nature of existence and meaning. I ultimately hope to share a sense of the consolation and coherence I personally experience before beauty, whether it’s in front of a view of mist on the water or amidst the impending rocks of the north coast of Cornwall.”
Beside The Wave has been proud to represent Jon for over a decade.
