The Painted Parish by members of the Federation of British Artists

This catalogue accompanies the exhibition The Painted Parish15 to 20 December 2015

Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1020 7930 6844 info@mallgalleries.comwww.mallgalleries.org.uk

© 2015 Federation of British Artists Ltd

Images © the artistForeword © Dr Timothy Brittain-Catlin

Works for sale

Works are available to browse & buy at www.mallgalleries.org.uk

Cover image: Bob Rudd RI St Davids Cathedral, Pembrokeshire (detail)

The Painted Parish by members of the Federation of British Artists

The Mall, London SW1www.mallgalleries.org.uk

15 to 20 December 2015

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Exhibiting Artists

Sarah Bee PSCharles Bone RIMatthew Draper PSPeter Folkes RIJohn Foker SWLALisa Graa Jensen RIAlice Hall AROIPeter Kelly NEAC RBAColin Kent RIRonald Maddox RI PS RBAAnthony Morris NEAC RPEdman O’Aivazian ROI RSMARichard Plincke RICharles Rake NEACBob Rudd RIPeter Vincent PSToby Ward NEACRoy Wright PSAnthony Yates RBA

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Forewordby Dr Timothy Brittain-Catlin

Reader in Architecture at the University of Kent and author of Churches: Explore the Symbols, Learn the Language and Discover the History

The English parish church provides the scene for magical experiences in life and art in a way that no other everyday place can do. That has not always been the case, of course: for about three hundred years, between the Reformation and the revival in religious art and architecture that was underway by the mid-nineteenth century, our churches were bare white rooms within battered old walls, and only a few poetic souls could see any romance in them. But then a change began which has stayed with us up to the present day. Inspired, perhaps, by the collapse in the belief of literal biblical truth and of the idea that our liturgies were ordained by God, church artists took more liberties than before.

The first thing to note about the parish church in art – and, indeed, the art in the parish church – is the sheer range of it. The fabric of a building conveys its age; the style of it conveys the interests of those that built it. The disposition of its iconography within – whether in statuary or glass – tells you the stories that its parson and its churchwardens wanted you to learn; and the execution of it is a lesson in the arts of the day. The monuments tell us about the people who lived in the parish, the epitaphs their preoccupations. Even dry refurnishing carried out in the high-Victorian era – when standards of handcraft in joinery and metalwork

Charles Rake NEACMoon over Ruined Abbey (detail)

Oil59 x 80 cm

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were very high – gives you a picture of the parish as it wanted to see itself. And of course the despoliations of reformers of any generation tell a further story. So when artists come to represent these things, they are telling a complex story of layer upon layer upon layer.

For all church buildings – and that includes many recent, post-War ones – show processes of slow change. An artist will try to capture this layering of different time cycles which may merely stretch from the two hours that a candle flickers to the hour or more of a Sunday service. They will commemorate the fifty years that the benches have been laid out the way we find them; or express something of the memorial windows that have lit the interior for over a century. And they will do this regardless of the size of the building – in fact, a view of St Paul’s Cathedral under scaffolding seems almost to express its vulnerability to the processes of time rather than its monumentality. It comes as no surprise that modernist artists and writers alike have found in the parish church a sense of scale-less luminance that evades other buildings. For about twenty years after the Second World War, church stained-glass window artists in particular created installations that brought that luminance permanently inside the building – ready for the next generation of artists to record the results. And thus the cycle continues – we hope, for eternity.

Roy Wright PSSt Paul’s Cathedral

Charcoal123 x 93 cm

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“a view of St Paul’s Cathedral under scaffolding seems almost to express its

vulnerability to the processes of time rather than its monumentality.”

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English poet and writer John Betjeman wrote in his Foreword to John Piper’s 1960’s A Retrospect of Churches: ‘It is surprising that such loved and familiar and often beautiful buildings have inspired so few English artists when one thinks of how many foreign artists, principally Dutch, from the 17th century onwards painted their local churches’. While Betjeman does concede that prior to Piper certain English artists concentrated on churches (including Turner, Constable and Cotman), his generalisation erases any potential interest in churches since. John Piper may have been ‘the first English artist since Cotman’ to be inspired by churches (according to Betjeman), but he is by no means the last. This present exhibition, The Painted Parish, picks up the theme ‘post-Piper’ by showcasing works by selected present-day members of the Federation of British Artists1, all of whom portray Britain’s churches, chapels and cathedrals (plus monasteries, priories and abbeys). It is proof, therefore, that sacred spaces inspire artists aplenty.

Indeed, many of the artists invited to exhibit have a long history of painting the parish. In particular, Peter Folkes, for whom the annual exhibitions of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours have provided the opportunity to show such pieces, including Wickham Church (2000),

Painting the Parishby Alistair Redgrift

Exhibitions Manager, Mall Galleries / Federation of British ArtistsChristianity & the Arts MA, King’s College London

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Bob Rudd RISt Thomas, Winchelsea

Watercolour63 x 79 cm

(detail opposite)

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Ringwood Church (2003), Lovers Flying over Lewis Church (2003) and Cow Loose in Cheriton Churchyard (2004). Similarly for Anthony Morris, the annual exhibitions of the New English Art Club have afforded the chance to showcase, among others, St Mary the Virgin Church, Oxford (1997) and St Peter’s in the East, Oxford (2000). While other exhibitors have completed artist residences at particular churches. From 2003-8, Toby Ward painted in and around St Martin-in-the-Fields, more recently at Westminster Abbey, and in 2013, at Lincoln Cathedral, where he painted his exhibits displayed here (including opposite: Chalice of Lincoln Cathedral with the Swans of St Hugh). Alice Hall has painted panoramas from the top of the tower at Westminster Cathedral, which now hang within the church, where she returned to paint the works on show, Morning Light across the Nave, Westminster (p.20), Cathedral View, Cathedral Piazza and Westminster Cathedral in Snow. Only a small sample of the numerous artists active today, these four cases testify to consistent artistic interest in Britain’s ecclesiastical sites.

Such works examine notions of time and place, life and loss, faith and worship. An especially pertinent example is Matthew Draper’s pastel on paper Nocturne with Rain, West from The Shard (p.13), which shows the arresting presence of St Paul’s amongst the assorted architecture

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Toby Ward NEACChalice of Lincoln Cathedral

with the Swans of St HughPencil, watercolour and

conté, 201346 x 37 cm

(detail opposite)

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of the capital’s contemporary skyline. Painted from the twenty-third floor of The Shard on a November evening, Draper’s nocturne is proof that the Cathedral remains a relevant symbol of the city, even in an era of skyscrapers and starward cranes. Further cathedrals on display include outside views of Wells Cathedral and Hereford Cathedral by Charles Bone and Anthony Morris (p.18, 23), as well as Richard Plincke’s wash drawing A Walk around Salisbury Cathedral (p.25). Particularly potent is Bob Rudd’s St Davids Cathedral, Pembrokeshire (cover), in which the painter’s free interpretation of the subject using exaggerated colour and emphasised mark-making evokes a strong sense of place through the drama of natural forces and shifting light. Certainly these paintings testify to the ongoing significance of British cathedrals in the collective imagination and as cultural icons.

In contrast, many exhibits show smaller parish churches. For example Colin Kent’s paintings situated around the East Anglian area, especially along the coast, which depict small but stunning churches in what the artist deems ‘the most interesting and diverse areas in the country’. Further north, John Foker’s Ancestral Communities (p.19) portrays the boundary of the churchyard of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs in Esh Winning, Durham, from the viewpoint of a rook as it sweeps through the stands of ash trees and

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Matthew Draper PSNocturne with Rain, West from The Shard

Pastel on paper, 2015104 x 148 cm

(detail opposite)

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sycamores. Such is the power of the painted parish, that while sketching the scene to the soundtrack of birdsong, Foker felt transported ‘three hundred miles away and fifty years into the past’ by memories of another church in Ash, Kent, where he visited frequently as a child. Meanwhile in Devon, Sarah Bee’s Burnt Out Buckfastleigh Church (opposite) is a portrait in pastel of a church victimised by arson several years ago. Still standing without a roof, ‘burnt out’, it remains in and through the artist’s eyes, a place of beauty.

Conversely to Sarah Bee’s dilapidated buildings, Lisa Graa Jensen has depicted country churches populated by life. From a couple getting married in Prenup Nerves and crowds celebrating in The Christening to All Creatures Great & Small, living energy abounds, not only in people but also in dogs, cows, birds and dragonflies. Seeing Sarah Bee’s images of Buckfastleigh alongside Graa Jensen’s scenes (located at churches in Sapperton in the Cotswolds and West Dean, Sussex, incidentally), one cannot help but wonder at the generations of ancestors who arrived, worshipped, and departed at Buckfastleigh as churchgoers continue to do in Graa Jensen’s A Country Church (p.17). With these images, The Painted Parish invites an ongoing dialogue about our relationship to the past and with the world around us.

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Sarah Bee PSBurnt out

Buckfastleigh Church

Pastel, 201259 x 59 cm

(detail opposite)

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Crucially, the artists featured here are not alone in this endeavour. Elsewhere, paintings of churches are not hard to find, even if they are oft overlooked - in the permanent collections of national galleries and museums (for instance at Tate Britain, by Samuel Palmer and Stanley Spencer), across the oeuvres of many modern artists (including Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden), and under the hammer at major auction houses (such as Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Bonhams).

Not simply pretty pictures, nor mere architectural studies of ancient buildings, paintings of sacred spaces possess the power to evoke memories of the past and provoke perspectives on the present (perhaps more than expected). As these works witness, despite what John Betjeman has written, the parish inspires many artists - even (and especially) today.

Lisa Graa Jensen RIA Country ChurchAcrylic inks, 2015

45 x 45 cm(detail opposite)

1The Federation of British Artists (FBA) is an umbrella organisation for Britain’s leading national art societies, based at Mall Galleries, London, including the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA), Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI), Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI), New English Art Club (NEAC), Royal Society of Portrait Painters (RP), Pastel Society (PS), Royal Society of Marine Artists (RSMA) and Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA).

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Lisa Graa Jensen RIA Country ChurchAcrylic inks, 2015

45 x 45 cm(detail opposite)

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Charles Bone RIWells Cathedral Watercolour66 x 84 cm

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John Foker SWLAAncestral Communities

Oil, 201526 x 29 cm

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Alice Hall AROIMorning Light across the Nave, WestminsterOil on canvas, 201598 x 78 cm

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Peter Kelly NEAC RBAAll Saints Church, Hutton, Essex

Watercolour, 201046 x 61 cm

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Colin Kent RIEvening ChurchMixed water based 201530.5 x 30.5 cm

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Anthony Morris NEAC RPHereford Cathedral

Oil, 201075 x 90 cm

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Edman O’Aivazian ROI RSMASt Mark’s Coptic Orthodox ChurchOil, 201546 x 36 cm

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Richard Plincke RIA Walk around Salisbury Cathedral

Wash drawing, tinted, 201051 x 61 cm

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Charles Rake NEACFigures by a ChurchOil 43 x 58 cm

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Peter Vincent PSPeepshow - St Pancras, Arlington

Pastel, 201580 x 80 cm

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Roy Wright PSSt Paul’s 3 Charcoal101 x 84 cm

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Anthony Yates RBASt Augustine’s, Edgbaston,

BirminghamOil, 2015

80 x 70 cm

Roy Wright PSSt Paul’s 3 Charcoal101 x 84 cm

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Sarah Bee PSBurnt out Buckfastleigh ChurchPastel, 201259 x 59 cm

Ruin in the Churchyard, BuckfastleighPastel, 201259 x 59 cm

Trees in Todber ChurchyardPastel, 201581 x 81 cm

Charles Bone RIDesign for Cathedral BookWatercolour 43 x 66 cm

Easton ChurchWatercolour80 x 93 cm

Wells CathedralWatercolour 66 x 84 cm

Matthew Draper PSNocturne with Rain, West from The ShardPastel on paper, 2015104 x 148 cm

Peter Folkes RIDecorated Brick ChapelWatercolour, 201527 x 22 cm

Itchen Abbas ChurchWatercolour, 200929.5 x 21 cm

Marybourne Church FontWatercolour, 201129 x 22 cm

Preston Candover ChurchWatercolour, 200729.5 x 21.5 cm

John Foker SWLAAncestral CommunitiesOil, 201526 x 29 cm

Exhibition worksWorks for saleImages and prices at www.mallgalleries.org.uk

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Lisa Graa Jensen RIA Country ChurchAcrylic inks, 201545 x 45 cm

All Creatures Great & SmallAcrylic inks, 201545 x 45 cm

Prenup NervesAcrylic inks, 201545 x 45 cm

The ChristeningAcrylic inks, 201540 x 40 cm

Alice Hall AROICathedral PiazzaOil on canvas, 201581 x 69 cm

Cathedral ViewOil on canvas, 201568 x 103 cm

Morning Light across the Nave, WestminsterOil on canvas, 201598 x 78 cm

Westminster Cathedral in SnowOil on canvas, 201394 x 53 cm

Peter Kelly NEAC RBAAll Saints Church, Hutton, EssexWatercolour, 201046 x 61 cm

Monk and the MonasteryOil on canvas, 201542 x 32 cm

Sunlight in Buttsbury Church, EssexOil on canvas, 201343 x 33 cm

War Memorial, Pershore AbbeyGouache, 201428 x 20 cm

Colin Kent RICoastal LightMixed water based, 201530.5 x 30.5 cm

Evening ChurchMixed water based, 201530.5 x 30.5 cm

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Colin Kent RIParish ChurchMixed water based, 201544.5 x 64.5 cm

Riverside VillageMixed water based, 201531.5 x 44 cm

Ronald Maddox RI PS RBASketches by the ArtistVarious

Anthony Morris NEAC RPBelmont Abbey, HerefordOil, 201473 x 63 cm

Christ Church OxfordOil, 200975 x 85 cm

Hereford CathedralOil, 201075 x 90 cm

The Parish Church of Saint Clydawg Clodock, HerefordshireOil, 201347 x 52 cm

Edman O’Aivazian ROI RSMAAll Saints Church, FulhamOil, 201546 x 36 cm

Entrance of All Saints, FulhamOil, 201546 x 36 cm

St Mark’s Coptic Orthodox ChurchOil, 201546 x 36 cm

St Sarkis Armenian ChurchOil, 201546 x 36 cm

Richard Plincke RIA Walk around Salisbury CathedralWash drawing, tinted, 201051 x 61 cm

St Enodoc, Padstow BayMixed media, 201555 x 68 cm

St Peter’s Church, St Mary Bourne (1)Watercolour and collage, 201052 x 65 cm

St Peter’s Church, St Mary Bourne (2)Watercolour, 201543 x 46 cm

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Charles Rake NEACEvensong - The GardenerOil 27.5 x 39 cm

Figures by a ChurchOil 43 x 58 cm

Moon over Ruined AbbeyOil 59 x 80 cm

St Martha on the Hill, GuildfordPencil and charcoal 77 x 99 cm

Bob Rudd RISt Davids Cathedral, PembrokeshireWatercolour 65 x 81 cm

St Nicholas, StudlandWatercolour, 201262 x 72 cm

St Thomas, WinchelseaWatercolour, 201263 x 79 cm

Peter Vincent PSChurch of the Good Shepherd – LullingtonPastel, 201580 x 80 cm

Peepshow – St Pancras, ArlingtonPastel, 201580 x 80 cm

Sandcastle – St Mary’s, NewickPastel, 201580 x 80 cm

St Mary the Virgin – GlyndePastel, 201580 x 80 cm

Toby Ward NEACChalice of Lincoln Cathedral with the Swans of St HughPencil, watercolour and conté, 201346 x 37 cm

Lincoln Cathedral West FrontPencil and watercolour, 201391 x 107 cm

Still Life with ThuribleConté chalk, 201365 x 48 cm

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Toby Ward NEACThe Treasury, Lincoln CathedralPencil, watercolour and conté chalk, 201365 x 80 cm

Roy Wright PSSt Paul’s 3Charcoal 101 x 84 cm

St Paul’s CathedralCharcoal 123 x 93 cm

Anthony Yates RBAFormer Methodist Church, South Street, Harborne, BirminghamOil, 201575 x 57 cm

St Andrew, Field Dalling, NorfolkOil, 201565 x 60 cm

St Augustine’s, Edgbaston, BirminghamOil, 201580 x 70 cm

St Leonard’s, Ribbesford, WorcestershireOil, 201562 x 77 cm

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