Thursday : Wind

 I love painting sailing boats... the way the wind takes their sails...

sudden jybe, Pyfleet races: c. Janet Driver

on the wings of the morning : c. Janet Driver

...as a child I remember learning this poem about wind... with a long drawn-out Whooooo   :)

Who has seen the wind? 

Neither I nor you: 

But when the leaves hang trembling, 

The wind is passing through. 

Who has seen the wind? 

Neither you nor I: 

But when the trees bow down their heads, 

The wind is passing by.                                  Christina Rossetti

..then, years later, this struck me :  

 “the wind blows wherever it pleases;

you hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going...

that is how it is with all who are born of the spirit...”

                                                                           St John 3, v 8

Tuesday

You may remember on Easter Day 2 of my paintings were oddly removed & random others also gone

this seems to have happened to other blogs as well, though Blogger has said they are trying to fix it

Today I‘ve decided to put up the sequence again: based on Mary Magdalene’s reaction on finding the empty tomb early on that Sunday morning after the crucifixion...while it was still dark...St John 20...

Mary Magdalene weeping outside the tomb

“Rabbouni”

Mary goes to tell the disciples who are behind locked doors

over the years I have painted a whole series on Mary Magdalene... only 3 will fit onto this page...

Easter Day : Mary Magdalen St John 20

Mary Magdalen weeping outside the tomb

APOLOGIES... the 2 paintings below have somehow been removed...

Blogger says this is temporary

 & they are looking into it

“Rabbouni”

Mary Magdalen runs to tell the disciples

who are behind locked doors

"Blue Monday" ?

Is this just another ploy by sales media ...?
like this link I received today, for a blue monday sale by the Society for All Artists:
http://www.saa.co.uk/blue-monday-saa-masking-fluid-bundle.html?utm_source=SAA+Database&utm_campaign=25b7ae5601-EN160117_Blue_Monday&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_69c0b1655a-25b7ae5601-175364785&mc_cid=25b7ae5601&mc_eid=902c736fec

it does rather seem like it !

One Blue Monday advert suggested cheering up the Monday blues....

well, certainly Mondays feel blue for me as its the day we do our cleaning...and I was never a fan of cleaning !... so if you need cheering up,...

Blue Morpho: oil on canvas by Janet Driver
This beautiful large butterfly landed on this Banana leaf just in front of me
while I was quietly sketching
almost as though asking me to sketch it too...
It stayed absolutely motionless for ages, and then finally, as a reward for my efforts, it began to flutter its wings slightly, gently opening them just enough for me to catch this glimpse of brilliant blue.... only for a few moments... before shutting them again .
It took several weeks trying to paint the brilliance of that small glimpse of blue... it was really exciting to discover how to make that jewel of colour really glow, and I will always remember the stillness and poise of that butterfly.

Blue Dream: oil on canvas by Janet Driver
Another surprising encounter... this time with a tree...
and the same stillness and poise
as  our neighbour's Magnolia tree basked in early spring sunshine

Resurrection Paintings by Jyoti Sahi

Resurrection by Jyoti Sahi

Jesus and the Samaritan
Woman at the Well : Jyoti Sahi

If you enjoyed these paintings during the "Come and see..." meditations, then you may be interested in this article I've just found on three resurrection paintings by Jyoti Sahi:

https://artandtheology.org/2016/03/30/three-resurrection-paintings-by-indian-artist-jyoti-sahi/#more-872

April Showers ?

What a day !

Rain pouring down...
roads & fields saturated overnight
making driving difficult
with deep, wide "rivers"
along roadsides...
but...
the most beautiful colours
of leaves just breaking through
 against dark oak tree trunks

Magnificent Magnolias

then brilliant warm sunshine...

cat basking in favorite place across studio threshold,
 at last the pool of water which flooded
through the skylight
 has dried out

...joyful birdsong...

 sudden thunder & lightning,
huge raindrops so loud
 the cat hides in a corner
 and mews at me,
as though
 its all my fault
 as large hailstones
 pelt down noisily
 bouncing right inside the doorway...

just as suddenly giving way
to deep blue sky

glorious sunshine
lighting up the magnolia tree next door...

Magnolias : Blue Dream  

 reminding me of paintings
 from this time last year,
 when the magnolia blossom
 basked in warm sunshine,
 suspended in stillness
 rather than suffering
 from this year's gales.

Good Friday

Following the service at St Bartholemew, Holland on sea, here are the two paintings so that you can see their colours: 

Chagall : White Crucifixion  1938

Chagall's White Crucifixion Revisited  2015 :

"Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing " Luke 23

  

Pyfleet Week 1-8th August

Fancy trying your hand at sketching & painting sailing boats ?

What better place to begin than by watching the great variety of boats racing away during Pyfleet week...this week... in Brightlingsea:

http://pyefleet2015.sailbrightlingsea.com/programme/

These paintings were completed in the studio after sitting sketching away... I have to be really fast and only jot down the main shapes that first catch my eye, filling pages and pages with rough sail shapes & people's silhouettes... all the time looking out to sea and drawing "blind"- hardly looking down at the paper
But one year I was lucky enough to see this boat coming straight towards me, travelling really fast, out on its own ahead in the race & clearly on a winning streak with the wind full behind its sails...

Later this sleek sailing boat below was riding high on the waves with a good strong wind; dashed straight up to where I was sitting at Splash Point & suddenly jibed just before hitting the sea wall steps !  Wow ! Boom riding over, almost into the sea wall, front sail flapping & spray flying everywhere as it dashed off at a sharp angle to continue the race...

.

 I really enjoyed the challenge of catching this, using a palette knife on the sails to give the sense of power as they turned slap into the wind right in front of me.


Then another day there wasn't even a breath of air: one of those hot hazy mornings before high tide where the sea is calm as a millpond...

A few boats had ventured out, only to become totally becalmed !
They were stuck there for nearly an hour as the tide glided in, barely moving the reflections.

This was a real gift for me... as I could sit & sketch to my hearts content...ending up with these 2 paintings (above: "Becalmed" & below : "Waiting for the Race to Begin " )

Once the tide was up, they all set sail... 

... only to discover the wind rather variable still...

some were soon taking the breeze from one another (whether they intended to or not !) 

whilst three had managed to get ahead and two others were yelling to one another: " Lets nip round behind this lot !" "Yea ! theres room on t'other side...best get around them quick !

I really enjoyed painting this one, hoping to convey the  sense of confusion afloat.

Wonder what awaits us at Brightlingsea this week ?

Exhibition at Geedon Gallery until 12th April

Only 3 more days to visit 

the Geedon Gallery Exhibition !

www.geedongallery.co.uk

We went down there this morning, enveloped in mist even after 11am... and were delighted... a real feast for the eyes. This gallery is a hidden gem near the Fingringhoe Wick Nature Reserve. Follow the Mersea road out of Colchester and turn left in Abberton, watching out for a small sign to the gallery down a country road on your right...

                                                          

artist: Ruth Stage : egg tempera painting

I was immediately drawn towards a group of paintings by Ruth Stage; the colours drew me in, and then I was intrigued by her use of egg tempera for landscapes.

This one above is a different one to give some idea of her style, but you need to visit Geedon Gallery to see how beautiful her paintings there really are. 

There are beautiful ceramics, a group of wrens carved in walnut, playful otters in bronze http://www.laurencebroderick.co.uk/otters-lb.html

and so many oil paintings...difficult to choose one or two artists...but I loved the subtle effects & colours of Jaqueline Williams   http://www.jacquelinewilliams.co.uk

and we almost missed a group of small paintings just near the door on our way out...

http://www.royalsocietyofbritishartists.org.uk/RBA/artistinfo.aspx?userid=1003

well, click & see, then visit Geedon Gallery and find Barbara Richardson's "Honesty Straw & Pots"

and enjoy all the other paintings, lino cuts, jewellery, wooden bowls...

and the view from the upstairs window across the winding river towards Mersea.

Mary of Magdala...over the years...

I've just read an article about an artist who has been going into her studio each year on Good Friday to work on something from the passion of Christ...and once an idea forms, she will begin..."the subject chooses you; you don't choose the subject. You have to remain vulnerable to what happens to you in life... You're not in control...its something other." Maggie Hambling, quoted in "Good Friday - looking east", an article by Malcolm Doney :

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2015/3-april/features/features/good-friday-looking-east

For me it is not so much Good Friday as Easter Day..
.I rarely have the luxury of being able to go into my studio on Easter Day itself...but around this time of year I am drawn towards John 20...the empty tomb and Mary of Magdala... 
and over the years a series has emerged...

One year, being struck by how disturbing and frightening it was to discover that the tomb was empty ... in the darkness before dawn...

  I looked more closely at Mary of Magdala and her fear that Jesus' tomb had been desecrated, 

and that this blinded her to everything except trying to find the body and bring it back for decent burial... 

I painted her distraught and weeping outside the tomb

Later on, I was struck by her courage in daring to look back inside the tomb again;

though still with the refrain going around and around in her mind: "they have taken him away, and I don't know where they have put him" 

 Another year I imagined her turning around, coming back up out of the tomb and being blinded by the brilliant light of dawn after becoming accustomed to the darkness...
.hearing someone she supposed to be the gardener...
 and here I found myself trying to convey the Risen Christ waiting with deep concern for Mary, asking why she was weeping, and waiting for the right moment to cut through her panic by simply calling her by name: "Mary"... so that she could finally recognize his voice... and in John's Gospel she immediately recognised him, saying: "Rabbouni"...

It was some months before I dared try this painting...
but eventually I knew it was being mysteriously "given" to me...

all these paintings have had that same quality...of needing to wait... sometimes to try making rough sketches to enable them to emerge from somewhere deep within...until eventually there comes a glimmer of "ah...yes... thats how I must begin..." and then, step by step...layer by layer... they have been painted...sometimes needing to wait for several days before further inspiration came...always being vulnerable, and having to "let go".

Of course this isn't the end of the story... and I am still being drawn to paint, trying to convey Mary Magdalen running to tell the disciples... and of their response...

                                                                                              and then that is only the beginning !

Mr Turner

Last week we went to see Mr Turner, the film about the later part of the artist's life & my mind's eye is full of  his ethereal paintings and the wonderful photography complimenting them throughout this film...dawn light across salt marshes; sunsets across the sea; sails of boats flashing reflections in brilliant sunlight; steam billowing out from a small 'puffing billy' train dashing along to be caught on canvas...

Leafing through the booklet on Turner's Later Works, by Martin Butlin bought years ago at Tate Britain, I re-lived that visit when I was so amazed by the size and colour of these paintings.

Looking again at my own dawn & sunset paintings, I wonder if I can move towards a more ethereal portrayal of  light in the future...? 

  But I will need to win the lottery if I am to buy such vast canvases & the paint to go with them !

12th & 13th September: Wivenhoe : Art in the Church

Come & see a wide variety of paintings by local artists.

This morning I took down three of my most recent oil paintings for this exhibition... My painting of the Houses of Parliament was naturally inspired by Monet... though I often pushed a pram along by the Thames, seeing this famous view when we lived in Lambeth.  So I have painted three H of P sunsets, each one with a different effect. The cliffs above are near Linton: again filled with the warmth of evening light. I am always attracted by the light at dawn or sunset shining through a sea mist.

If you visit the exhibition you may also find my painting of the River Colne transformed at Sunset, which is one of four paintings inspired by the amazing effect of sunlight shining though the evening mist, transforming the whole stretch of riverbank. I remember how the golden light changed to deeper orange, flooding the water at high tide: swimming in this was unforgettable !

details:    stmaryswivenhoe.org/forthcoming

29th July...through August... to 9th September 2014

Wivenhoe Library

have invited me to do another Exhibition of my Oil Paintings 

Library Opening times: click link below or scroll down to next blog

http://webapps1.essexcc.gov.uk/findalibrary/libdetail.asp?LibID=78

Look above the bookshelves and elsewhere on the walls : 

sunsets on the River Colne, dawn sea mists, butterflies...and more...

30% on all sales goes to Library Funds.

                                                                               

click here for my website   www.janetdriver.co.uk

at a recent exhibition someone asked me

     Why on earth is this painting called 'The Eye of the Needle' ?

Can you guess ?

clue :  the small natural archway:
apparently it is only just wide enough for a dingy & oars to go through, and, so the story goes, the stone masons who cut stone from these cliffs nicknamed the bay "the eye of the needle".

  I would like to know why the contrast between shadows and brilliant sunlight shining on these limestone cliffs reveal so many abstract human-like shapes. Is it just the result of natural weathering, or did the stone masons enliven their labour by cutting these shapes ?

 I made two studies before painting this, and nearly called it "Stone Carnival", but then I suddenly saw the link with what Jesus said: "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God". Certainly these gigantic "stone people" could never pass through this particular "eye of the needle" archway. It seemed to make a visual tongue in cheek parallel.

May & June 2014

13th May - 17th June:  Exhibition of Paintings

@ Wivenhoe Library 

Come along to the Library and see a selection of my oil paintings up on the walls above the bookshelves and by the noticeboard & desk .

 For the first week there is also the Wild Life exhibition as you enter the Library,  with sketches by Richard Allen and a colourful  children's sculpture.

Wivenhoe Library Opening Times:  

Library Opening Times:
Monday:	Closed
Tuesday:	2.00 - 7.00
Wednesday:	Closed
Thursday:	2.00 - 7.00
Friday:	10.00 - 1.00
Saturday:	10.00 - 1.00 & 2.00 - 5.00
Sunday:	Closed

View paintings on my website: www.janetdriver.co.uk

Reflecting R S Thomas' Bright Field

" I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
 for a while...."

So many times over the past few months 
words from this poem have echoed through my mind 
I have been taken by surprise, sketched, painted
and occasionally even jotted down
the thoughts that come to me....

Dark green depths of trees in shadow
and two seagulls
glide slowly around one another.
Effortless bright wings against deep darkness.

Then the Green Waterfall:

Dense ancient woods

Trees, everywhere trees

Hillsides covered

With trees

 like gigantic woolly green lambs

And sheep that need shearing

Deep green, shaggy and

Tumbling like waterfalls

Over dark red rocks in circular ravine

Down into deep darkness.

Continually shifting patterns of dark and shade

As clouds chase overhead

Reflecting and enhancing one another

One moment a clear silhouette

With rocky outcrop

And small clump of trees

 Topmost leaves catching the sunlight.

A brief glimpse,

Swallowed by passing shadows,

Of glancing light, luscious green depths:

 Trees dancing towards the sea far below.
And we ? Do we delight
The Creator's eye,
Watching, waiting, wondering
In all this hidden beauty.

Pyfleet Races

Pyfleet races at Brightlingsea this week... 

you never know what you might see: the boats trying to get around this gaggle to keep in the race....or...one day they were all becalmed...one of those airless mornings when there was not even a whisper of a breeze ... 

like to see these paintings?

then come to my open studio in September  www.colchesteropenstudios.org

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 !