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 !

Damp Misty Mornings

Across the river : mist rising from the marshes, Wivenhoe

I love the misty effects of early morning, particularly when the sun  is low in the sky during spring and autumn.

One day I just happened to see the dawn sunshine breaking through the mist, lighting up the church and Fingringhoe Mill as mist swirled slowly through the trees, across the low lying salt marshes and up towards the sky.  The plants and trees on the grassy walls along the riverside provide a wonderful contrast in the foreground, making this a real joy to paint.

A few days later there was an amazing sunset. I had never seen the sun just at this angle before and could hardly believe the way its brilliant orange light was reflected by the white wall of the mill...no longer white, but like burnished gold...

The trees were no longer misty blues but suffused with golden light. I stood transfixed, as though time stood still...but in a few moments the light swiftly began to fade... 

Here is the beginning of my attempt to share this " moment in and out of time"... I will need to dig deep into my visual memory to complete this painting once these first layers have dried sufficiently to continue.

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 !

Signs of Hope

Its been snowing heavily, but just outside my studio window I see the snowdrops have multiplied...

 Apparently the Snowdrop is a symbol of hope, discovered after the Crimean War, growing out of the mud & chaos, and adopted as a symbol in a similar way to that of the poppies after later wars.

 So, after all the recent tragedies, I began looking for signs of hope, especially in the news where so often chaos & tragedy take the headlines...

• There was an article about Syrian refugees being given hospitality in Jordan;
• Bishop Libby Lane's Consecration opening a doorway for the future;
• & Muslim neighbours helping Christians whose homes & churches were being burnt down...

just to mention a few...

• and over the years there appears to be a growing sense of oneness with people in far off places when there is a terrible tragedy...an instinctive feeling of solidarity.

• Whenever there is joy & hope in the recovery of a health worker I also remember the remarkable doctor who saved Nigeria from the outbreak of Ebola, even though she died as a result. A really tragic death, yet her son could later write of discovering hope through the realization of what she had achieved:

"I wonder how one individual has so much connection with so many people.
 So, it's like we shared her with everybody which is special."

read the whole story here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-29696011

• Then I discovered this article about the unassuming, ordinary neighbours of refugees in Jordan  http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2015/30-january/news/world/syrian-refugees-find-compassion-in-jordan

Not only has this country with far fewer resources than ours welcomed so many thousands into their midst, but they have opened up their schools by creating double shifts.

• in mid-January ordinary people miles away in Niger rushed to help their neighbours whilst a mob was burning churches & homes: " While the mobs were preoccupied with the destruction they inflicted on the front part of the house... the pastor's Muslim neighbours rushed through the back door to save whatever property that they could spare. "They helped to save the pastor's property while the crazy mob was burning everything," http://www.christiantoday.com/article/muslim.neighbours.helped.pastor.during.niger.attacks/47117.htm
• And then for a joyful historic breakthrough in the UK as the first female bishop is consecrated in the Anglican Church in England 

 click this link below:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30974547


What, I wonder, have you noticed as a sign of hope ?

New Life from the ashes?

I cannot remember how long ago I began a painting expressing my anger about all the violence in Syria and then added more angry daubs when further outrages happened in Nigeria, Pakistan, Iraq, Gaza, Sri Lanka, & Paris. Its a real mess. And yet one day when I turned it upside down I was surprised to discover recognizable shapes emerging, and decided to enhance the outlines a little to see what would happen...resulting in an abstract group of faces in one corner.
This has been a prayer painting with much anger and deep sadness. A cry of 'Where on earth is God in all this ?

And then I think of all the really positive things people have been doing: those who have been involved in giving aid or working with refugees despite the risks. Its too easy to be overwhelmed and depressed by all the evil, and not notice the love around. What about Medicins sans frontiers working in war torn areas, and all those who have gone to West Africa to work among Ebola victims ?

The ground outside my studio was totally waterlogged; a dark mess of decaying leaves and ashes. But then suddenly, with a little sunshine, a few thin green shoots have appeared, topped with the first snowdrops

a reminder to notice all the little signs of new life and hope.

welcome to 2015

another unfinished painting... portraying the flip-side of last night's unfinished picture of someone running towards a firmly locked door
  Here I imagine that door being opened from within
 A heavy wooden door, firmly locked by a crossbeam, taking quite an effort to open.
But as it gradually opens, even just a crack, the brilliant morning light floods in
 to dispel the darkness.
The beginning of something new...