Jake Wood-Evans: Between Memory and Light

Jake Wood-Evans’ painting exists in a constant dialogue with the history of art. Educated at Falmouth University and later awarded a Royal Academy scholarship to study the Old Masters at the Prado in Madrid, he developed a practice rooted in the visual language of the past, while continually pushing it towards something new.

His paintings occupy an intriguing space between representation and abstraction. Historical images emerge through layers of oil, erasure and light, becoming fragmented, atmospheric and almost spectral. Rather than simply reproducing the past, Wood-Evans reinterprets it, allowing familiar images to become uncertain and open to new readings.

This relationship with art history reaches a particularly significant moment in In Turner’s Wake, opening at The Historic Dockyard Chatham in September 2026, where his contemporary paintings will be presented alongside original works by J.M.W. Turner, including works loaned from Tate.

In this conversation with The New Collectors, Wood-Evans reflects on the Old Masters, memory, light and disappearance, while exploring what it means to continue a dialogue with painting’s past without becoming confined by it.

Jake Wood-Evans in Studio

SR Your relationship with painting seems to have been deeply rooted in art history from the very beginning. After studying Fine Art at Falmouth and later receiving a Royal Academy scholarship to study the Old Masters at the Prado, how did that encounter with works by the great masters fundamentally change the way you understood what a painting could be?

JWE Studying at the University in Falmouth, in some ways I was kept away from many of the trends that were prevalent in London art schools at the time.  My degree allowed me to take quite a traditional approach to painting. Gaining the scholarship to study at the Prado in Madrid after my degree was something of a gift. I was able to take my time and consider slowly and carefully the hand of the Old Masters. I began to feel a real connection with the works, and perhaps more importantly, with the people who made them.

I also think there was something so serious about the work being situated in a museum context. It held the palpable weight of history all around. There’s something about a sense of these layers of time which adds a reflective weight to the masterpieces, and that continues to set them apart from a modern work.

The Prado experience really cemented my love for classical painting, and I started to build my own relationship with each individual artist. I was thinking about how they approached the work, their process, and how they used the brush. When you pay attention to the way an artist has applied the paint, you begin to see their hand and the speed of application. It tells you something about how the artist behaves in front of a canvas - the kind of confidence they have or sensitivity. A mark can tell you a lot about an individual artist - how they are feeling perhaps, or an indication of what they are trying to convey in the work.

Neptune and Amphitrite, after Rubens, 45x55cm, oil on linen, 2026 - studio wall

SR You have spent much of your career looking backwards in order to create something contemporary. What is it about the visual language of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century painting that continues to hold your attention, and what do you feel contemporary painting can still learn from it?

JWE The questions that artists through time have been attempting to answer are often the same ideas and concepts that artists today are concerned with. The big questions in life remain remarkably similar of course; the fragility of life, the drama of love and sin for example. These shared interests continue to offer us a rich starting point for contemporary practice that non-the-less continues a conversation with the past.

On a more practical level, when choosing references I am often looking for works that have a very strong and formal visual framework, which is typical of the 18th and early 19th century era. There is so much on the surface of these paintings that they are alive with wonderful areas of detail. It becomes much easier then for me to remove elements, play with the surface, the structure and the emotional values. Despite removing often a large amount of detail, the resulting work can retain some visual integrity. Enough of the recognisable, formal structure - which we might sometimes be only subconsciously aware of - remains. It’s these traces which, as a viewer, provide a connection.

SR Your paintings often begin with recognisable historical images, yet through layers of oil, erasure, distortion and light they become something almost impossible to locate in time. What interests you most about this space between representation and abstraction?

JWE I am continually drawn to the tension between representation and abstraction. I love using the recognisable structure just discussed and discarding it or altering it. But just enough for it to retain an echo of what once was. My intention is to reframe the image in your mind, to facilitate ways we can read it differently. I find a lot of space for experimentation in that area. Pure abstraction is quite different to figurative painting, but I’m really interested in a middle ground. It’s a challenge to create harmony between the two, where they sit next to each other and compliment one another.

I am also interested in the natural abstractions we all experience day to day. We view life through uncanny acts of abstraction - the way mist or light conditions can obscure or alter what we see for example. As a painter, I find that adds many rich layers to the existing webs of colour, tone and shadow around us. Translating these using paint and marks on canvas is in itself quite an abstract concept!

Rockets and Blue Lights (Close at Hand) II, after Turner, 206x175cm, oil on linen, 2026

SR There is a particular sense of memory and disappearance in your work: figures become apparitions, landscapes seem to dissolve, and historical images lose their certainty. Are you interested in painting as a way of preserving the past, or perhaps in showing us that the past can never really be preserved?

JWE I’m interested in both really. I don’t necessarily want to make the work about one idea, but hopefully it creates layers of meaning. I like the fact that multiple readings can exist within the same painting.

We are in the act of preserving the past because we are still interacting with it, but the past can never truly be defined. It is ephemeral and fleeting, always up for reinterpretation and rewriting. On a personal level, a certain sense of loss as our life progresses exists within us all, I think. It’s part and parcel of existence. We cannot hold on to all that has gone before, elements fall away or become distorted by memory. That’s certainly a powerful theme that I like to explore in my work.

The Birth of Venus, also known as, The Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite, after Poussin, 200x260cm, oil on linen, 2026 - studio wall

SR Looking back at your career so far, which exhibition or project are you particularly proud of, and why does that experience hold a special place in your journey as an artist?

JWE There have been several exhibitions and projects over the years that feel amazing to remember now, but I tend to think of the high moments through reflecting on which of my own paintings I am particularly happy with. It’s very difficult to see at the time of creating the work. Looking back it’s easy to be critical of course, but there are times when I look at past pieces and see marks and brushwork that is really interesting and continues to draw me in.

In general, I’m happy that my career - both looking at work by other artists and through my own painting, has provided me with opportunities to understand myself more. Most importantly, I’ve been able to paint full time for many years now, and that’s such a privilege.

SR You have moved between portraiture, historical imagery, landscapes and more abstracted compositions throughout your career. Do you see these different bodies of work as separate chapters, or are they all part of the same investigation into light, memory and the history of painting?

JWE Very early on, I decided to approach my painting as a language to be built. Using that language could then enable me to study whatever it was I found in front of me, in a way that allowed me to express myself. Subject-wise, I look at and treat everything the same in many ways, although what does change are the emotions or feelings I’m trying to convey with each individual painting.

A fascination with light, memory and looking at paintings from the past has formed my practice. But at a particular moment in time, it’s my relationship with what’s literally in front of me that takes over, which is often much more microscopic and physical. At that point, the work hinges on quick decisions I’m making with paint and the marks I am creating. I am focused in on the materiality and possibilities that moving paint around the canvas offers. And in that sense whatever I am working on, I end up dealing with the same challenges and obstructions.

Response to Second Sketch for The Battle of Trafalgar, after Turner, 160x140cm, oil on linen, 2026

SR You are now presenting In Turner’s Wake, bringing your contemporary paintings into direct dialogue with original works by J.M.W. Turner. What does it mean to place your work physically alongside Turner’s, and what do you hope viewers might discover when they encounter these two very different moments in the history of painting together?

JWE To have an opportunity to place my work alongside J.M.W. Turner is obviously a dream come true. What I love about the show are the layers of history which are embedded in the site at The Historic Dockyard Chatham. The location itself inspired Turner, and the ship HMS Victory was built at the dockyard, which featured in one of Turner’s best known works, The Battle of Trafalgar. I hope visitors will be able to enjoy the chance to explore the show from so many different perspectives - from contemporary and historical viewpoints.

Responding directly to the Turner loans we were fortunate enough to borrow from Tate, particularly his expert depictions of light, has driven me to experiment even further within my own paintings in altering the atmospheric quality. Reversing, removing or inverting the scene has allowed me to reimagine what I have described as altered landscapes. They speak very differently to the viewer, even though they may have their kernel in the reference image. Having the original works in the same space will, I hope, allow the audience to draw links and comparisons - both in terms of subject and technique - that they may not have made so intuitively otherwise.

Ships at Sea, after Turner, 200x140cm, oil on linen, 2026

SR Looking toward the future, what remains unresolved for you as a painter? Are there subjects, techniques or territories within painting that you still feel compelled to explore and are there artists, past or present, whose work you believe we should be looking at more closely today?

JWE I’m hoping I can still surprise myself. I love the concept of standing in the footsteps of past artists who I admire, and physically tying my work to a location. I like to keep my options open and I don’t really know where I’ll be going next, but that is what keeps painting exciting for me.

Each time I complete a body of work, in many ways its a circular sensation, where I feel that I am back at the beginning of the process again. When I reflect on a collection of paintings, it can feel as if I’ve just opened a door to another potential project. With everything I research or study, the aperture just becomes wider and wider. Often in the process of making the work, I’ve uncovered more questions than answers. So for now, I’ll be trying to push forward with what I have recently discovered, and see where it takes me. I’m completely open to exploring new territory - I look forward to it!

In terms of exploring other artists, this show has led me to look more closely at the work of Claude Lorrain, who was in turn a big influence for Turner. There is an uncanny beauty to his pastoral scenes, they are too perfect to be real. The tiny figures in the paintings give a wonderful sense of scale, which I think reflects the vastness of the external world and our place in it. I am excited to develop this interest further and see how, technically, I can explore these scenes with paint.

Jake Wood-Evans in Studio

@All images courtesy of Jake Wood-Evans.