Darwin Day Celebration Exhibition - Shrewsbury 2013

The Birthplace of Charles Darwin - 'The Mount', Shrewsbury 2013

I was asked to return to Shrewsbury to produce a body of work retracing the steps of Charles Darwin and his connection with the town in time for the Darwin Day celebrations and exhibition at Millard and Lancaster, starting 12th February 2013.

Darwin's Birthplace is in Shrewsbury in a Georgian property called 'The Mount' which you can reach heading out of town over the Welsh bridge.

Now the building houses the District Valuer and Valuation Office for Shrewsbury. This meant, as can be expected for a functioning office, there was plenty of cars in front of building throughout the midweek whilst I was there painting somewhat killing the nostalgia and appeal of the image. Fortunately I was able to return to finish at the weekend and the low winter sun was casting harsh long shadows across the drive and providing some necessary foreground interest.

I guess I couldn't have expected anything other for late January, but the weather was proving challenging, mainly wind and rain, and so an indoor option was required, which led to the discovery of the spectacular interior of St Mary's.  'Spectacular' mainly for its collection of stained glass, it is said that "no other church in the country has a collection to equal it". The main treasure being the Jesse Window, the main subject of my painting.

The Jesse Window, St Mary's, Shrewsbury 2013

A church interior is not an obvious choice to link to Charles Darwin - whose seems to be the figurehead of scientific discovery ahead of religion, but the building does hold some interesting connections. As part of his education at the nearby Shrewsbury School, Charles Darwin would have been taught in the Trinity School section of this church seen just through the arches on the right of my painting. Also when the top of the spire of St Mary's collapsed in 1894 (the third highest spire in England) a local vicar suggested that the collapse was divine retribution for the decision to erect a statue to Charles Darwin in the town!

Mountford's Charles Darwin Sculpture sat in front of the former Shrewsbury School (painting incomplete when photographed)

The statue the vicar was describing was my next and probably the most obvious subject for the trip, the image of Charles Darwin sat in front of the Shrewsbury boarding school where he was taught, now the Library for the town.

Drizzle and wind made this piece difficult but I am pleased with the image, the drama of looking past his head to the clock tower and the two balancing passages to the left and up the stairs to the castle on the right.

My last painting of the week was a quick study of the church where Darwin was christened - St Chad's in Shrewsbury, again strong winds were playing there part and there was a point where it left the easel and I was chasing it around The Quarry.

Despite this I am pleased with the direction of this piece. Extremely loose and iconic with some bold colour use. The composition is quite interesting, a photographic approach with harsh cropping and a dramatic vantage of the balustrade.

All of the paintings are now on display at Millard and Lancaster, they were complete in time for The Darwin Day celebrations and were featured in a wonderful piece by the Shropshire Star that took comparative photographs of each of the locations ...

http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2013/02/13/shrewsbury-oil-paintings-celebrate-darwins-birthday/

Before this body of work I have encountered Charles Darwin once before in my painting career when painting a triptych for The Upper House Hotel in Barlaston, the connection to Darwin is explained in my rather lengthy explanation video ...

Oil Painting 54 - The Divinity School, The Bodleian Library

I was getting the impression whilst producing the painting of the Radcliffe Camera and the view from the tower that I was still missing an important feature of the Oxford experience. A lot of the fascination of Oxford University is that it seems to be going on behind closed doors that the city just allows you glimpses of from the street. I wanted to get inside some of these majestic buildings I was staring at and the obvious place to start seemed to be the famous Bodleian Library.

After signing wavers stating I would pay for any damages caused (not stupid these Oxford University people) I was granted access to paint in the Divinity School section of the library.

Wikipedia can give you a more reliable account of the buildings historical importance - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinity_School,_Oxford

Although I do know quite a bit since standing in there for two days and listening to numerous tours. This is a gothic masterpiece, and unusual because the plans were changed dramatically half way through the 15th century build. It was never intended to be a 'school' as such, more a room for examination of a students knowledge through aural debate, with students addressing their professor, fellow students and the general public from pulpits in the room. The subject being 'Divinity' which was the core subject in the 15th century with so much of education being linked to the church. 

So it was really a presentation room, all 'study' was happening in the neighbouring colleges and the university just stood as an examination body in the centre. Wealth came to the colleges from former students but not really to the university itself and so the build of this school was delayed over the course of the century due to lack of funds. The university were presented with a collection of some 245 manuscripts by the Duke Humphrey half way through and this is where the dramatic change to the design arrives. In order to house the manuscripts (extremely rare and valuable, often bejewelled) the university divided this space into two storeys instead of a single tall room. This has pushed an elaborate gothic ceiling down really close to the naked eye and gives the opportunity to really study the remarkable amount of decorative bosses.

It has also survived remarkable well, looking as though the 15th century stone masons could have left yesterday, The Reformation left a serious toll on religious architecture in the country with saint carvings and crucifixes being defaced, but only a handful of such vandalism occurred in this room. Upstairs, the now named Duke Humphrey's Library, suffered a different fate with only 4 of the 245 manuscripts surviving with piles of books being burnt in bonfires outside the library.

The library is still being used today and so is the Divinity School as a graduation ceremony location for Oxford University students along with the neighbouring Sheldonian theatre.

The other key point the tour guides would bring up when they could see heads dipping in the tour groups was ...

Harry Potter was filmed in here! *heads look up*

and in the Duke Humphrey's Library upstairs! I was painting the the actual Hogwarts.

How was it used?

Ron Weasley learned how to Waltz in this room, it was also the Infirmary in one of the first films. I was standing pretty close to Harry's hospital bed

I dont even like Harry Potter. I was more a Lord of the Rings fan, I think that is the Beatles vs The Stones of our generation.

Anyway, hope you like the painting, I am pleased with the injected colour into the naked stone, similar to what happened in Worcester Cathedral although this has a much warmer quality due mainly to two dull days outside that allowed the artificial light inside to light up the fluted stonework like fire. These gothic subjects are really linking well with my work at the moment and I am please with this discovered tangent to year of the boat.

Detail of Oil Painting 44 - Worcester Cathedral

Oil Painting 45 - The Copper Beech at Tewkesbury Abbey

After our time at Worcester Cathedral we waved it off into the distance as we joined The River Severn and set off down towards Tewkesbury and Gloucester. Suddenly our previously long 60ft vessel didn't seem to be holding it's own, since leaving the canal, alongside the packed yacht clubs and cruisers on this big river. You become aware of a flow and require an anchor, and worry what all these enormous mooring poles are for - surely the river level doesn't change that much? 

The locks have grown in size and our boat now seems vulnerable and a silly shape. The river locks are all about the rope-work apparently which shouldn't be a problem for me having already invented at least 150 different rope knots, whilst being on the boat, just don't ask me to repeat one.

We were soon whizzing downstream (more the rivers doing than impressive navigation skills) and despite an embarrassing incident trying to moor with the flow rather than against it at Upton-on-Severn we survived the Severn and ducked into the smaller more sheltered River Avon at Tewkesbury.

I knew before arrival what I wanted to paint in Tewkesbury after attending my friend's wedding in the Abbey earlier in the year, on the day of the wedding I had spotted the magnificent Copper Beech in the grounds of the Abbey, the biggest Copper Beech I can remember, it has grown unhindered and perfectly balanced for 424 years and its leaves release the most spectacular combination of colours. Apparently it is not as old as its neighbour, a mulberry tree, tiny in comparison, that was planted by Charles I (before losing his head). Nevertheless it is the Copper Beech that is the most visually spectacular competing with the Abbey for the skyline.

In the painting I wanted to communicate the mass of the coloured leaves but also show the external / internal relationship of this tree. The leaves form like a tent skin to the very outer edge but you could glimpse through to the magnificent skeletal internal space the tree has. Almost like a Cathedral or Abbey itself.

Another element I was keen to represent was the dappled light surrounding the base. This interest in the ground around the tree plus wanting the Abbey to be a secondary element in the composition to this tree meant I adopted a slanted composition for Oil Painting 45.

The strong slant is the most striking feature, and something I thought I would embrace, although it perhaps too strong an element and could take away from the subject matter. As I touched upon in the blog entry for Oil Painting 44, I am very aware of the passing general public's reaction and try to quickly get the paintings to a state where the average passer-by can relate to. I have to say, this didnt really happen with this piece, even late on!

'Why is the Abbey on a strange angle and look like it is falling over?' seemed to be a common question.

I could have chose a more orbital perspective and got a result very similar to the previous painting, 'Crowleasow Farm', curving the horizon and keeping all the verticals coming off the horizon at 90 degrees -

However I have experimented with a very photographic distortion on the space, manipulating the Abbey's vertical perspective like a wide angle photograph would.

To help explain I have overlaid one of Karen's wide angle shots over the top of the painting and erased areas so you can see where I was coming from with the angles of the verticals of the Abbey and the windows on the far right.

I was testing my ability to paint this distorted space convincingly, and push my luck further by having so much of the composition dominated by a mass of leaves that do not give much help in describing space unlike for example bricks on a building or obviously vertical pillars. That seems to be a running thread this year, describing space/depth/distance with organic nondescript masses like leaves, a rapeseed field or of course, water.

Probably a failed test though, judging from the amount of explaining I had to do whilst producing and the fact that I feel the need to do a photo mock-up to explain where I am coming from. Still, you have go to try these things!

Oil Painting 44 - Worcester Cathedral Interior

I am especially grateful to the management at Worcester Cathedral for allowing the benefits of my work to overrule the hazards and to grant me access to paint inside the Cathedral.

This interior space is beyond breathtaking, the height, space and unquestionable beauty surround you. Whereas I was struggling to find an angle that satisfied with Oil Painting 43 of the exterior, there was absolutely no problem in locating a vantage point inside the building. This for me, sits alongside some of the best Cathedral Interiors in the North of France. I can now, for the next four days at least, walk to this incredible subject from where I wake, and spend full days responding. The colours change fabulously throughout the day as the sun comes and goes throughout the different stained glass, highlighting the green and golds of the naked cotswold stone. 

I knew instantly this subject would lend itself to my approach and I could produce an individual take with challenging perspectives, gestural brushstrokes whipping the eye around to reflect the enormity and strength of the pillars, and draw out and exaggerate some of the colour subtleties within the stonework in the changing light.

Because there was just so much to go at visually I ended up attempting to contain as much as possible by standing in the central cross of the building in a position where by swinging around I could view down the Nave, both transepts and down towards the Lady Chapel, basically a panorama just short of 360 degrees catching the north, east, south and western stained glass windows in one image. Panning round so far enables you to convincingly wave the horizon and bring in a sense of height. 

This was the main struggle with this painting, wanting to spin right the way round but also knowing the overriding sensation of being in this space, and therefore the main subject, is the gravity defying height. Spinning too much and creating a thin panorama that loses that feeling of looking up would be a failure. The easiest way for me to communicate the height would be flip the panorama on its side, so you simply pan from the floor to the ceiling, which is exactly what I did Oil Painting 42 - Pugin's Gem. This piece is the straight forward symmetrical depiction of the interior of a gothic space and I wasn't surprised to find a photo with nearly the same composition in The Pugin Centre in Cheadle after starting the piece. No, I had got the appeal of the symmetry out of my system with that painting and now wanted to play games with recording right the way around me, looking up and down, even skewing and distorting some aspects to sneak the transept organ in on the right.

It was a compositional struggle that stretched me to the point of not knowing, even after a full days work, if it would read clearly as a representation of space or not. There was a eureka moment when i painted the pattern of the tiles in the central space that helped describe the entire space. All of a sudden the piece then seemed to click with the average viewer, and I gained the approval of the general public which until then had obviously been unsure! This happens a lot with the painting process in public and I often rush to get to the stage where people can read where I am going with the painting, as the activity becomes more enjoyable after that and you do not feel the end to constantly explain yourself. Believe me, a full day of rushed work and doubt, with confused glances from passers by, is a long time!

Gradually though the piece developed and the community of the Cathedral became warmer and warmer to having a painter in with them. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the Cathedral, met some wonderful people, and would love the opportunity to spend more time there. A residency either with the Cathedral or the local school would be ideal where I could have more time  to explore spacial representations in this the most breathtaking of interiors. This is something I shall certainly be pursuing once I have finished dragging this 16 tonne tub around the country.

Oil Painting 42 - Pugin's Gem

This is a painting of the interior of St Gile's in Cheadle, Staffordshire. Not really related to this trip, although we did have the boat within a couple of miles of this church on the Cauldon Canal this last winter, this painting was produced as part of an animated documentary we are working on to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the architect, Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812 - 1852), the most renowned architect and designer of the nineteenth century Gothic Revival. 

The creator of the stunning interiors of the Houses of Parliament, Pugin was the architect of over one hundred buildings, and the author of several books on Gothic Art and Design. St Giles' is the most splendid of all churches designed by Pugin and expresses in every detail his idea of what a parish church should be.'Perfect Cheadle,' he said of it, 'my consolation in all afflictions.'

Source Michael Fisher AWN Pugin Guides

I have numbered it as one of the Year of the Boat project as this work seems to have ignited a greater interest in the Gothic, had an influence on the following paintings in the project.