is a Cornish painter, not just in origin and subject matter but also in tradition. This tradition is deeply rooted in the St Ives group of artists from the the immediate post- war period to the early 1960s. At the vanguard of this tradition, and particularly relevant to an understanding of Hooperʼs work, were the colourist Patrick Heron, Terry Frost (with his collages and prints) and the landscape painter Peter Lanyon. The Russian constructivist and erstwhile St Ives resident Naum Gabo, and his compatriot El Lissitzski, have also influenced Hooperʼs framing of three dimensional space and its compression onto the two- dimensional plane.

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Hooper cites Peter Lanyon as particularly important to his development as a painter. Not only was Lanyon a friend and gliding companion of his father Harry (Hooperʼs early years were spent on the peri- track at Perranporthʼs airfield, a former WWII Spitfire base) but, more significantly, he was a native Cornishman with a particular and, unarguably, potent sense of place. This association was unique amongst Lanyon's St Ives contemporaries.