Art & Faith : a week @ Lee Abbey

  Art & Faith...a week @ Lee Abbey, Devon :  www.leeabbey.org.uk

home again, after a long journey...a fairly quiet weekend to absorb all the impressions from Lee Abbey...then a busy cleaning day...and instead of feeling my usual irritation at how dirty & dusty everywhere gets each week, I find myself remembering a young lady  singing  away while she was cleaning the bathroom just next to the one I had been using... Feeling sorry for her, I tried to joke about her having landed the worst cleaning job today...her immediate reply: “ Oh, I love this... I’m free to sing and pray all the time... “   and off she went to clean the next loo, her voice echoing all around me as I went on my way.

Lee Abbey is like that somehow, filled with the God of surprises, like a refreshing oasis for those who stay there for a few days.

Have a look at their website...    www.leeabbey.org.uk

Art & Faith ??? ...well, I was coming to that...but first let me find a few photos to share with you....

...a beautiful place...but if you want to see the people ...   then you must visit Lee Abbey ...

tomorrow I will find time to add Art & Faith jottings....

ART & FAITH   “Seeing & Believing”: Dr Debbie Lewer & David Rowe  
 

I really appreciated the balance between David’s session, focusing on one painting, giving us time to really absorb and reflect upon it...to try and let the artist communicate with us...and then afterwards the sessions with Debbie, who showed us a whole range of paintings following the theme “seeing and believing”. The slower, more meditative approach with silences seemed to enable us to think on a deeper level when we came to look at more paintings after coffee...

And now, the joy of being able to look up my favourites on the internet...

Wikepedia has a copy of the Antonello: Annunciation we focused on right at the beginning...and as soon as I found it I was struck once more by the depth of inner peace it conveys...only the possible flutter of the pages & the poised hand reminding us of the unseen angel...  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Annunciate_(Antonello_da_Messina,_Palermo)

There were so many other paintings ...where to begin ?  Perhaps with a comment someone made afterwards, walking along and noticing a patch of grasses & wildflowers...”I shall never look at that the same way again after seeing Durer’s Great Piece of Turf....” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Piece_of_Turf

This reminds me of Meg Stephens, a Welsh artist who painted grasses and wild flowers, hoping to show the beauty of our vanishing natural environment.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/meg-stevens

Does God speak through art as he does through nature? Debbie asked...heads nodded...readings in worship echoed the paintings: e e cummings : I thank you God for this most amazing day.... & R S Thomas’ Bright Field... & here springs into my mind Jyoti Sahi  and his paintings where Christian symbolism is shown immersed within nature...

 http://maitreyahc.wordpress.com/2011/05/01/jyoti-sahi-garden-of-creation/    

the longer you look at this painting, the more you can see ...

Deeply moving, questioning and challenging works of art...

I cannot begin to unpack it all...   

At one point I jotted down “ worship & looking at pictures both require the same kind of attention....relaxing and waiting to see what comes & allowing things to surface in their own good time...”

Things will continue to surface from this Lee Abbey Week for a long time !