About
Jonathan Barr Lindsay is a prolific painter and sculptor. His work focuses on the city and its history, exploring the details of old buildings and statues. In recent work, he has imagined being in the shoes of historical figures; painting and sculpting self portraits of himself representing these figures as a public monument.
In 2015 he exhibited two stone cast artworks, The Time Traveler and Somebody of History at Arnolfini as part of Somewhere in the City, an AIM initiated project. In 2016 he exhibited Bristol’s Best, a piece of art created in response to an archival printing plate. This was shown as part of Set in Stone, an exhibition at Tobacco Factory Bristol. In October 2016 he exhibited at the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, Ireland as part of Perceptions.
Jonathan’s painting Home was exhibited as part of the Homespun exhibition at Spike Island Test Space in March 2018 and at John Street Gallery at SVA in Stroud during an AIM Tea Service event.
Jonathan has developed a loyal audience for his work and in addition to exhibiting, he has now started to receive private commissions.
“I mostly work with acrylic paint, watercolour pencils, and oil pastels.
I’ve been making art all my life, all through school and college. My work is about telling stories, superheroes, and putting myself in history – I want people to remember me and my life.
The piece I’m most proud of ‘Somewhere in the City’, where I made myself a monument. We are doing a project on the history of Bedminster, and I’m making a statue of me if I was on the SS Great Britain all those years ago. I like getting on with my work, when I’m quiet and focussed I can forget about the noise. I like exploring different ideas and working with different colours – I like brights. My goals for the future are to carry on as normal. I like to think back in time more than think forward”.
“My main inspirations are being a superhero, telling stories, and history.
AIM has made a difference to my life because I need to have a placement, to go somewhere, and meet people. I like getting out. I like having our own space at AIM, and my own wall and table to create art.
If I could give other people advice about wanting to become an artist, it would be: be yourself and get on with your work.
If i could describe my work in 3 words they would be: great, fabulous, enjoyable”.
AIM 