Creative Spirit

Creative Spirit is a new resource for the Church based on the Methodist Church Collection of Modern Christian Art. It consists of eight study sessions on disc with DVD and PowerPoint resources. A 48-page booklet includes leader's notes, colour reproductions, prayers, and bible readings related to the paintings. Forty works of art, by a range of international artists are featured, with eight works selected for special presentation. 

Creative Spirit is compiled and written by Sarah Middleton, Elizabeth Moore, David Hollingsworth and Neil Thorogood: artists and educators from within the Methodist Church, Church of England, and The United Reformed Church.

Who is it for?

• House groups
• Works very well for Lent bible study
• Local Preachers and leaders of worship
• Retreat and Quiet Day leaders
• School and youth groups 16 +
• Individuals wanting a fresh, art-based approach to personal devotion

How does it work?

Each DVD case contains a booklet and two discs:

• A DVD for TV use, featuring almost the full Collection of Modern Art – new works are still being acquired.
• A Powerpoint slideshow CD of the same material designed for projection onto a large screen.
• A 48-page booklet which contains:
• Notes for leaders, questions helping viewers to explore the paintings, prayers, bible readings, outline study sessions, comments from visitors to exhibitions of the Methodist Art Collection, information on the eight artists featured, and colour reproductions of these selected 20^th/21^st century works of art from the Methodist collection:
• 1)      Dalit Madonna by Jyoti Sahi
• 2)      Nathaniel (asleep under the fig tree) by Mark Cazalet
• 3)      Storm over the lake by Eularia Clarke
• 4)      The pool of Bethesda by Edward Burra
• 5)      The healing of the lunatic boy by John Reilly
• 6)      Aimez-vous les uns les autres (Love one another) by Georges Rouault
• 7)      The cross over the city by Michael Edmonds
• 8)      Untitled-Pentecost by John Brokenshire

Session material in the booklet may be photocopied for one-off use.

The price is £9.99 plus £2.50 p&p and there are three ways to order: includes works by Graham Sutherland, Elisabeth Frink and many other renowned artists. It is a living collection, and It has been seen and appreciated by thousands of people, and now you can also experience it on this website; most of the images are accompanied by expert commentary: http://www.methodist.org.uk/static/artcollection/.

• - Online: http://www.ourmagnet.co.uk/
• - by phone: 0844 736 2524
• - by post: PO Box 10378, Bishop’s Stortford CM23 9FT. Cheques payable to Magnet Resources.

The Methodist Church Collection of Modern Christian Art

From the Darkness and Colin Burns

From the Darkness ... light in contemporary art is a Brighton Festival Fringe exhibition (1 May – 23 May 2010) at Little St Peter's Church, Preston Park, Brighton.

The curator of the exhibition is Nathaniel Hepburn, from Mascalls Gallery in Paddock Wood, West Kent. ‘From the Darkness’ is one of a series of exhibitions from Brighton to Canterbury including works by major international artists including Graham Sutherland, Stanley Spencer, Marc Chagall and Maggi Hambling.

Works of all media which engage with light are to be exhibited in the beautiful setting of this 13th century church, including Illumined Way by Colin Burns.

Colin writes that journeying into the unknown, a sense of adventure and discovery, hinting that there may be something more beyond the physical world than we can see, are all themes that he explores in his work. He does this through the depiction of landscape, where there may be a path leading into the distance which symbolises the idea of journey or there may be light coming from an unseen source drawing the viewer in almost as if entering a hidden, unseen world.

Michael J. Creasey

Spire, Gethsemene & Annunciation

All Saints & St Faiths Church, Childerditch

Michael J. Creasey is a largely self-taught artist, specializing in portraits and figurative work, mostly nudes. He also paints abstracts. He works primarily in acrylics, but also paints watercolours, and has recently returned to oils after a long break. He keeps up a regular regime of life-drawing, which he sees as central to his work.

Michael has exhibited locally in Havering and at the Mall Galleries and elsewhere, and has undertaken many portrait commissions. Though not primarily a religious artist, he has a wide knowledge of art history and is interested in the way art has been and should continue to be employed by the Church. Sutherland and Piper are important influences.

Though he sees his abstract works, of all his output, as most embodying a 'spiritual' dimension, he is at present working on more overtly religious subjects, as a result of his membership of commission4mission.

Michael says, "I am not especially a religious painter, as I mainly paint portraits and figure studies, but I do also paint abstract works which tap into emotional and spiritual aspects of my life and reflect my Christianity."