We may at the moment be suffering from a cold wind from the north-east, but it is to be expected, as rough winds do shake the darling buds of May. Therefore we should make the most of it, as summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

Our exhibition for the month of May is a calming selection of still life painters– featuring new work from:

Alex Callaway, Atsuko Fujii, Harriet Porter, Helen Simmonds, Jo Barrett, Lewis Chamberlain, Lillias August, Linda Felcey, and Rob Pittam.

The work on display is in a variety of mediums. ‘Roses and plates’ is an oil on board by Helen Simmonds:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lewis Chamberlain is a renowned painter of richly-detailed pencil drawings (he has featured in the BP portrait prize on 6 occasions):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Atsuko Fujii’s egg tempera paintings are captivating and calming:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linda Felcey’s paintings incorporate the tight weave of linen:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ceramics are by John Jelfs:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally….

This week on Radio 4 Tweet of the Day featured the inimitable skylark, which immediately brought back childhood memories of camping in Donegal.
I recall running on a narrow grass path to the beach with the marram grass whipping your legs, the whir of the skylark was always audible.

There are numerous poems celebrating skylarks (including George Meredith’s Lark ascending which inspired Vaughan Williams).
This one is by an Irishman with a strong west country connection:

Lark, skylark, spilling your rubbed and round
Pebbles of sounds in air’s still lake,
Whose widening circles fill the noon; yet none
Is known so small beside the sun:

Be strong your fervent soaring, your skyward air!
Tremble there, a nerve of song!
Float up there where voice and wing are one,
A singing star, a note of light!

Buoyed, embayed in heaven’s noon-wide reaches-
For soon Light’s tide will turn – Oh Stay!
Cease not till day streams to the west, then down
That estuary drop down to peace.
-The Ecstatic Poem by Cecil Day Lewis

Thanks to everyone who has visited over the last fortnight.
It is great to be open and to have visitors again.

Upstairs in the gallery we are retaining a significant number of works from the Nathan Ford show for those who missed the exhibition.
Thank you to the owners of paintings who have allowed us to keep them for such a prolonged period.
The short film ‘Nathan Ford, painter’ has now been viewed over 40 thousand times on YouTube.
I think that might be quite good.

Hark! Hark! The Lark at Heaven’s gate sings !!

Thank you for reading.

Aidan Quinn