Bearing Up Exhibition at the Cut Arts Centre
The Covid Works and other Paintings
To coincide with the sixth anniversary of the Covid lockdown and the end of the Covid enquiry, local artist Paul Cope is exhibiting at the Cut Arts Centre in Halesworth a vast series of drawings and collages which he made during an extended period of isolation. Paul’s wife, Joanna Barfield, was clinically vulnerable, so the couple lived a very isolated life for almost two and a half years. Getting Covid could have proved fatal to Joanna. To mark the passing of time, Paul began drawing a visual diary and established the habit of posting the results on social media each day, sharing the work with others doing similar things. These drawings can be seen in an amazing display in the upstairs gallery at the Cut Arts Centre, probably the largest exhibition space in Suffolk.
As the pandemic progressed and the couple were still living restricted lives, Paul evolved the drawings into more colourful, collaged paintings made on patchwork surfaces recycled from old teaching demonstrations, resources and other artworks. These are all 50cm by 50cm and worked over, obliterated, or extended, with new painting, colour, and collage. Tidying up and sorting out was a Covid activity, and Paul tidied up his old work by collaging and painting over it to make a new body work which covers the walls of the Malt Gallery at the Cut Arts Centre in an immersive display which overwhelms the viewer with colour, pattern, and texture and details of the couple’s lives during an extended lock down. The sequence numbers over 400 square paintings from May 2020 until the couple were finally released from their personal lockdown in August 2022.
Paul says, “I started making the work at the beginning of lockdown in March 2020, not realising how long it would go on for us. I made a promise to myself to keep making the works until we were released, and I ended up making over 400 pieces, which have become this amazing installation in the Cut Arts Centre. People have been bowled over by the overall effect of the colour and marks on such a large scale. Joyful but sad in the details was one comment. I am proud of the work, which I think kept me sane during the pandemic.”
Downstairs in the cafe gallery, Paul is showing 50 more recent abstract paintings on canvas completed over the last two years since the sad death of his wife, Joanna, in May 2024.
The exhibition is open at the Cut Arts Centre, Halesworth from 10 am until 4pm Tuesday through Saturday until 9th April. There will be a finishing party on Saturday 4th April from 2pm to 4pm. The artist will be giving a talk about his work with an exhibition tour and studio visit.