On the Wall Exhibition

On the Wall explores how physical movement through the landscape shapes artistic process, offering audiences an intimate perspective on Britain's and Spain's climbing environments and the communities that inhabit them. A collaborative exhibition bringing together painter Alexander Heaton and photographer Jonathan Blower. Their work explores climbing as more than a subject – it is a way of seeing. Heaton produces paintings inspired by exhibitions to mountains and crags, translating sketches, memories, and direct observation into expressive landscapes that evoke the physical and emotional experience of being immersed in challenging terrain. His work captures the shifting light, texture, and atmosphere encountered on the rock face, where moments of stillness exist alongside exertion and exposure. Blower's photographic practice documents climbers within these same environments. Rather than focusing on achievements or spectacle, his photographs reveal the relationship between people, place and movement. Made on crags throughout the UK and Spain, the images record fleeting moments of concentration, trust, and vulnerability, celebrating climbing as a shared culture built on cooperation, respect, and connection with the natural landscape. Through an interplay of painting and photography, the exhibition invites visitors to rethink how we experience the natural world and how artistic practice can emerge from direct physical engagement with it.