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 !

Palette Knife Painting

I've used  palette knife now and then for various paintings, usually to drag a highlight over a darker colour,
or to paint textured rocks, as in this painting, based on rocks & spray along the Moray Firth...

 I began with the rocks, and let them dry before using the knife again to give the effect of waves splashing up and spilling out all over the rocky surfaces in the foreground.

 Last week I decided to have a go with a larger palette-knife painting,
 based on cliffs seen whilst walking along the Dorset coast.

This time I painted the whole picture with palette-knives... not a brush in sight.
Its all painted "wet-in-wet" too...and now just drying before adding final highlights...
perhaps after watching some Wimbledon tennis !

Here is a preview detail:

Oil Painting Tuition

garden studio

small group/ individual tuition 

Essential Oils, Part 1 & Part 2

scroll down for further information

 Tuition...  contact me now for autumn 2014 

more details: click Tuition page on blog pages

Oil Painting 4 U ?    Why not try it and see... 

Essential Oils      

Small group tuition 

      in a garden studio in Wivenhoe [ near Colchester ]

         next course begins October 2014

                           For details click on "Tuition" page above

To register interest: email me now: janet@janetdriver.co.uk

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Interested in Quiet Days / Prayer Painting ?

Email me for details

& See Prayer Painting page on my website:  www.janetdriver.co.uk
Why not join in prayer painting for the people of Syria, Gaza, Iraq, Nigeria... Sudan...  wherever / whoever  you wish to pray for ...?

email me .... janet@janetdriver.co.uk

News: Exhibitions & Open Studios

This summer I hope to have paintings in local Exhibitions

& to take part in 

Colchester Open Studios

 during weekends in September 2013

I will post dates & times when my studio will be open

also

September 14th & 15th weekend: 

•  Art Exhibition at St Mary's Church, Wivenhoe

further details: www.stmaryswivenhoe.org.uk

click on Friends of St Marys / events ... for full page details

paintings on the go...

As usual, I am working on more than one painting at the same time.

I know these look incredibly different, but they are both being developed from sketches & photos of things that interest me whilst walking along the River Colne. 

There were so many misty mornings earlier on, with trees looming up in all kinds of odd shapes, which became great fun to paint.

Then came sunshine dancing off the water, so bright you could hardly bear to look...and the mirage effect looking out from Brightlingsea towards Bradwell that has always fascinated me since I first saw it years ago.

I have often stared with eyes half closed against the glare thinking ...'if only I could paint that effect...' There was nothing for it but to have a go !   Like many artists, I am rarely satisfied with the result...but then that leads to further experiments...

 I read just the other day that even Monet was often dissatisfied with his paintings.

Trying to communicate something of the wonder of a fleeting moment when the light bounces off the water in such a way that you stand transfixed with the sheer beauty of dazzling light...I am trying the impossible of course...but maybe, just maybe...it might trigger a similar memory in someone...

Pentecost

                                                      Unfinished Pentecostal Symphony...

for another joyful Pentecostal painting, try this link to Biblical paintings from West Africa... and then you can move through their paintings at leisure... www.jesusmafa.com

The Needles, Isle of Wight

On holiday... the Needles

were often covered with misty clouds pouring down all around them. But now and then we caught glimpses, ...hints and guesses ...  

These oil paintings were completed at home, after making several sketches...

 I have also done a series of paintings as the light changed at dawn...the sunlight shines onto the white of the rocks , reflecting yellow, purples and blues as the sun rises through the mist. I will add these to another post one day...