Beaux Arts Bath

12 September 2022

 

The last vestiges of afternoon light are slanting into the gallery, illuminating Simon allen’s heliotropic sculpture ‘Light within Shadows’ . Above the fireplace is Mark Johnston’s ‘Last Embers’. In the alcoves are porcelain bowls and vases by Jaejun Lee.

 

Simon Allen Light within Shadows 22ct Gold on Carved Wood Diam. 114 cm.  £13,000
Mark Johnston Last Embers  Oil on Canvas  50 x 55 cm.  £4,400

 

The late Breon O’Casey said of Simon’s work:

There is an invisible landscape which the visible landscape can only hint at. This is the rhythmic landscape of energy. This landscape is not the bird but the bird’s flight, not the river, but the river’s flow, not the tree, but the leaves bending to the wind. And it is to this hidden landscape that Simon’s sculptures refer, reducing it and reforming it to abstract pattern. To own a sculpture of Simon’s is not to own a window on the world, but to bring the world itself into the room.

Speaking of cosmic matters….

We have calcium in our bones,
iron in our veins,
carbon in our souls,
and nitrogen in our brains.
93 percent stardust,
with souls made of flames,
we are all just stars
that have people names.

-Nikita Gill

 

Paul Mount’s angular stainless steel sculpture throws reflected shapes on to the walls below Simon Allen’s white gold triptych.  Paul Mount, Simon Allen, Breon O’Casey; all artists who are/were based in the south-west corner of England, bringing us Cornish light.

Paul Mount Nest,  Stainless Steel, Ed. 7 POA
Simon Allen L to R  Shadow Form 12, Shadow Form 10, Shadow Form 9, All  6 ct. White gold  Carved Wood  40 x 40 cm.  £2,700 ea.

Meanwhile in Wiltshire, the cygnets are growing….  This is the river Frome at Freshford. I have seen this family group near Bradford-on-Avon and at the bridge near Iford Manor. Their original nest was close to the bridge in the background.  Later that day an egret flew over Friary Wood as Sancho Panza snuffled amongst the leaves…
A bird of a different feather has landed in the gallery.  His title is derived from one of the most oft-quoted poems in the English Language.
Patrick Haines The Widening Gyre, Bronze, Ed. of 9 67 x 37 x 55 cm.
The Widening Gyre, Bronze, Ed. of 9 67 x 37 x 55 cm. Sold
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

from W B Yeats  ‘The Second Coming’

And finally, from one poet who loved mystics and mysteries, to another….

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous
to be understood.

How grass can be nourishing in the
mouths of the lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
How two hands touch and the bonds will
never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.

Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say
“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.

Mysteries, Yes by Mary Oliver