mail@jonathancooper.co.uk jonathancooper.co.uk
1.
Can’t See The Woods For The Trees [English Proverb]
pen and watercolour on paper
20 × 16 ins / 50.8 × 40.64 cm
£3,800 + VAT
Celebrating the wonder of trees
My new show is a first for me, working in pen and watercolour. This all took root when I travelled to Kenya for a three month art residency in October 2023. Deciding against taking oil paints, apart from anything else, I didn’t like the prospect of bugs getting stuck in wet paint! It was time to try something new. So armed with a pen, paper and watercolours and having fallen in love with the enormous variety of trees, I decided to concentrate on these. On my return I showed them to Jonathan Cooper and this exhibition is the result. There are 30 works including some that were done in Kenya.
Trees have special powers, each adapting to its own environment, for example…
Off the Kenyan coast… Threading through the labyrinth of the mangroves, it was extraordinary to see huge trees flourishing, growing out of the sea. Their aerial roots visible at low tide acting as snorkels absorbing oxygen from the air; essential for the mangroves survival in the water logged soil. They are the coastal guardians, climate warriors against erosion and storms. They support a rich biodiversity including hosting fish nurseries and incredibly store 5 times more carbon than rain forests.
Inland… Seeing the majestic baobab trees, Africa’s tree of life, punctuating the parched landscape. Harbingers of water and when there is none nearby, animals including
elephants can eat their bark for moisture. They are also known as the upside down tree, the story handed down by African bushmen, it is said that the god Thora took a dislike to the baobab growing in his garden so he threw it out over the wall of Paradise, and although the tree landed upside-down, it continued to thrive.
Dotted about the East African scrubland, whistling thorns enjoy a harmonious symbiotic relationship with ants. The ants live in the bulbous growths at the base of the thorns, gaining shelter and nectar from the tree, and in return, they aggressively defend the tree against the animals that try to graze on it.
Trees are central to our spiritual wellbeing, whether it’s just the physical act of hugging a tree or how they have become prominent metaphors in our stories and myths, the Tree of life, the Tree of Knowledge and in India, more specifically the sacred banyan tree.
They also feature in many proverbs, the most telling is: If you want to be happy for a year, plant a garden; if you want to be happy for life, plant a tree.
This show is a celebration for all trees, real, mythical or just the bonkers from the mind of Edward Lear, “In the land where the bong-tree grows”!
Rebecca Campbell 2025
Through The Acacias, A Herd Of Elephant Parade
pen and watercolour on paper
16 × 20 ins / 40.64 × 50.8 cm
£3,800 + VAT
3.
Tall Trees Creating Shade, Small Shrubs
Creating Tea, It’s A Win Win!
pen and watercolour on paper
20 × 16 ins / 50.8 × 40.64 cm
£3,800 + VAT
2.
Amongst The Whistling Thorns
pen and watercolour on paper
16 × 20 ins / 40.64 × 50.8 cm
£3,800 + VAT
5.
The Tree House’s Newest
Resident - Tweet
pen and watercolour on paper
20 × 16 ins / 50.8 × 40.64 cm
£3,800 + VAT
Trees Are Poems The Earth Writes Upon The Sky
pen and watercolour on paper
16 × 20 ins / 40.64 × 50.8 cm
£3,800 + VAT
6.
[Kahlil Gibran]
7.
Mighty Oaks From Little Acorns Grow
[English Proverb]
pen and watercolour on paper
20 × 16 ins / 50.8 × 40.64 cm
£3,800 + VAT
8.
I See Yew
pen and watercolour on paper
16 × 20 ins / 40.64 × 50.8 cm
£3,800 + VAT
9.
The Arborist’s Abundant Bounty
pen and watercolour on paper
16 × 20 ins / 40.64 × 50.8 cm
£3,800 + VAT
In The Land Where The Bong-Tree Grows
Lear]
pen and watercolour on paper
20 × 16 ins / 50.8 × 40.64 cm
£3,800 + VAT
10.
[Edward
A Society Grows Great When Old Men
Plant
Trees Whose Shade They Know
They Will Never Sit In
[Greek Proverb]
pen and watercolour on paper
16 × 20 ins / 40.64 × 50.8 cm
£3,800 + VAT
12.
A Bad Day For The Topiarist
pen and watercolour on paper
20 × 16 ins / 50.8 × 40.64 cm
£3,800 + VAT
13.
In
The Land Where The Banyan Tree And Cows Are Held Sacred
pen and watercolour on paper
20 × 16 ins / 50.8 × 40.64 cm
£3,800 + VAT
14.
The Grazing Line
pen and watercolour on paper
16 × 20 ins / 40.64 × 50.8 cm
£3,800 + VAT
The Monumental Baobab, Africa’s Mighty Tree of Life
pen and watercolour on paper
16 × 20 ins / 40.64 × 50.8 cm
£3,800 + VAT
Barking Up The Wrong Tree
[American Proverb]
pen and watercolour on paper
16 × 20 ins / 40.64 × 50.8 cm
£3,800 + VAT
17.
Sanctity Amongst The Tree Of Life
pen and watercolour on paper
20 × 16 ins / 50.8 × 40.64 cm
£3,800 + VAT
16.
18.
Banana Republic
pen and watercolour on paper
20 × 16 ins / 50.8 × 40.64 cm
£3,800 + VAT
19.
God Gave The Giraffe A Long Neck
So That He Would Not Have To Bend
The Palm Tree [Arab Proverb]
pen and watercolour on paper
16 × 20 ins / 40.64 × 50.8 cm
£3,800 + VAT
20.
If You Want To Be Happy For A Year, Plant A Garden; If You Want To Be Happy For Life, Plant A Tree [Dutch Proverb] pen and watercolour on paper 20 × 16 ins / 50.8 × 40.64 cm
£3,800 + VAT
pen and watercolour on paper
20 × 16 ins / 50.8 × 40.64 cm
£3,800 + VAT
21.
A Good Tree Can Lodge
Ten Thousand Birds
[Burmese Proverb]
22.
Through
The Mangroves, The Fishing Fleet Returns
pen and watercolour on paper
20 × 16 ins / 50.8 × 40.64 cm
£3,800 + VAT
23.
Africa’s Arboretum
pen and watercolour on paper
16 × 20 ins / 40.64 × 50.8 cm
£3,800 + VAT
pen and watercolour on paper
16.5 × 23.5 ins / 42 × 59.4 cm
£4,200 + VAT
A Garden Without A Tree Is No Garden At All
[Monty Don]
pen and watercolour on paper
23.5 × 16.5 ins / 59.4 × 42 cm
£4,200 + VAT
24.
Acacia Ambush
25.
26.
The Taller The Bamboo Grows, The Lower It Bends [Chinese Proverb]
pen and watercolour on paper
20 × 16 ins / 50.8 × 40.64 cm
£3,800 + VAT
27.
Charging Through The Candelabra
pen and watercolour on paper
16 × 20 ins / 40.64 × 50.8 cm
£3,800 + VAT
28.
A Good Tree Bears Good Fruit [Mathew]
pen and watercolour on paper
20 × 16 ins / 50.8 × 40.64 cm
£3,800 + VAT
29.
Compact And Bijou
pen and watercolour on paper
16 × 20 ins / 40.64 × 50.8 cm
£3,800 + VAT
The Tree Of Knowledge, Good And Evil [Genesis]
pen and watercolour on paper
16 × 20 ins / 50.8 × 40.64 cm
£3,800 + VAT
REBECCA CAMPBELL
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2002-25 Jonathan Cooper, London
2018 Robilant + Voena, London
2005-15 Brian Sinfield Gallery, Burford, Oxfordshire
2010 Morton Kuehnert, Houston, Texas, USA
2008 Louis C Morton, la Casa de Subastas, Mexico City, Mexico
2005 Chelsea Art Gallery, San Francisco, USA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025,23,18,16,13 Jonathan Cooper, London
2023,21,19 Beaux Arts, Bath
2023,21,10 Loch Gallery, Toronto, Canada
2019,18,17 LAPADA, with Jonathan Cooper
2019,15,07 BADA, with Jonathan Cooper
2018 Hauser and Wirth, Mark Shand’s Adventures and His Cabinet of Curiosities
2015-2023 Article 25, 10 x 10 London
2005-2020 Brian Sinfield, Burford
2014 20/21 British Art Fair, with Jonathan Cooper Art Toronto, with Loch Gallery, Canada
2009 Art London, with Jonathan Cooper
2005 Discerning Eye, Invited Artist, Mall Galleries, London Winner of Chairman’s Purchase Prize
PUBLIC
2024 The Great Elephant Migration, USA
2022 Eggs of an Era, Elephant Family, Queen’s Platinum Jubilee
2018 Concours d’Elephant, London
2017,15 Travels to My Elephant, India & London
2014 RHS Chelsea Flower Show, London
2012 BT Artbox, London
Fabergé Big Egg Hunt, London
2011 Jungle City, Edinburgh
2010 Elephant Parade, London
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
2024 Woodhall Estate, Hertfordshire
2023 Safari Series, Kenya
COMMERCIAL COMMISSIONS & LICENSING (Selected)
Bicester Village: Boots; Canns Down Press; Elephant Family; Globetrotter; Good Earth, India; Henri Bendel, New York; Holland Park Opera; Le Sirenuse, Italy; Lotte, South Korea; Museum & Galleries Publishing; Paperchase, London; Pomegranate, USA; Princess Margaret Hospital, Swindon; Saks Fifth Avenue, New York; Shellys Shoes, London; Sheraton Hotel, Ethiopia; St George’s Hospital Essex; Stewo, Switzerland; Van Cleef and Arpels; West Green House Opera; WHSmith.
Many paintings have been used on book covers.
BOOKS/MAGAZINES/PRESS (Selected)
Decorative Frames, by Juliet Bawden
Murals: Trompe l’Oeil and Decorative Wall Painting, by Lynette Wrigley AD India; Art Buyer (cover); Artists and Illustrators; BBC News, Scotland; BBC Homes and Antiques; BBC Radio 4; Books and Life, South Korea; Cassone; Country Life (Cover); Country and Town House; Elle Decoration UK, India; Fabric; The Foodie Bugle; Harpers & Queen; Homes & Gardens; Indian Express; Kitchens, Bedrooms; & Bathrooms; Matchbox; Leisure Painter; Period Living; The New Statesman; The Sunday Telegraph; V&A Magazine; The Resident, The Lady; Oxford Times; Palo Alto Weekly, USA; Slightly Foxed (cover); De Tuin Exclusif, Holland.
Elephant Family: In house artist Ambassador 2025 Awarded the Tara Award by Their Majesties King Charles III & Queen Camilla.
Commissions undertaken Photography by Justin Piperger, except cat. 27 by Kevin Dutton.
The Best Time To Plant A Tree Was Twenty Years Ago. The Second Best Time Is Now [Chinese Proverb]