commission4mission's new website

See a fantastic variety of artwork, of which the above is a sample, on our new website. The site is up and running with artist's profiles combined with information on: our commissions; the commissioning process; online sales; background information; events; and our charitable donations.

commission4mission has worked with freshSPRING to develop this website showcasing our work. 

The website also has all of our posts from this blog. In future, our posts will all appear on the website blog rather than this blog. As a result, if you wish to stay up-to-date with commission4mission's news please bookmark http://www.commission4mission.org/blogs/. 

New website for commission4mission

commission4mission has been working with freshSPRING to develop a website showcasing our work.

Our new website is now up and running with artist's profiles combined with information on: our commissions; the commissioning process; online sales; background information; events; and our charitable donations.

The website also has all of our posts from this blog. In future, our posts will all appear on the website blog rather than this blog. As a result, if you wish to stay up-to-date with commission4mission's news please bookmark http://www.commission4mission.org/blogs/.

New website page on Arts initiatives

commission4mission and aspects of its work now feature on the website of the Diocese of Chelmsford. c4m  is an initiative and organisation which has grown out of the Chelmsford Diocese although its membership and activities now extend beyond the Diocese itself.

The website page has been written by Jonathan Evens and includes information about c4m commissions in the Diocese, the Barking Episcopal Area Art Trail, and the Barking Episcopal Arts Festival to which we regularly contribute.

Click here to see the new website page.

Members' updates

Harvey Bradley has an excellent new website showcasing both his ceramics and paintings which can be viewed at http://www.harveybradley.co.uk/Harvey%20Bradley/home.html. 

Mark Lewis and Peter Webb are organising a Big Draw style event for Saturday 16th February in the St Mary's Memorial Hall alongside St Mary's Woodford. There is also likely to be a small c4m exhibition in the Memorial Hall on the same day. Contact Mark on pharos@sketchbook.wanadoo.co.uk or Peter on oilpaint@hotmail.co.uk for more information.

Mark is also planning an exhibition of his sketchbooks at the School of Jewellery in Birmingham for two weeks from 16th April. Many of his sketchbooks, used weekly on the train journey from London to Birmingham, will be digitised and displayed on flat screens in the exhibition.

At the Tokarska Gallery Nadiya Pavliv Tokarska is preparing for the next exhibition No-one to bestow by Emma Scutt (Private View 7 February, 6pm - 9pm with the show running from 5 - 9 February Tuesday - Saturday, 12pm - 7pm) as well as finalising their Open call for an exciting future exhibition entitled CiTiES:All Dimensions where the deadline for submission is 20 January.

Eyes on Jesus

Christopher Clack and Jonathan Evens feature in a new Dutch book entitled Jezus voor ogen (Eyes on Jesus) with visual meditations and word and image Bible studies for Lent. The visual meditations have all featured previously on the ArtWay website and include the meditation which Jonathan Evens wrote on Christopher Clack's Descent II.

Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker, who edited the book, writes:

"For us this book is a milestone that marks what ArtWay has been given to accomplish in the past two years. The book will hopefully function as a springboard to a new and broader audience, so that the website and its resources will be used by even more people and churches. We hope that an English version will be published next year.

In Jezus voor ogen the focus is on Jesus. While working on the book it struck me that images of Jesus can start to function as ‘models’ to us. In the book I expressed this as follows:

‘Jesus hangs on the cross as the image of the ideal human being. This is how humans are meant to be: full of love, obedient to the Father, willing to serve and suffer, resisting temptations, putting others above oneself. If we are honest, this is not really our idea of an ultimate hero. For this very reason it is of such great importance to keep on feeding ourselves with this and other images of Jesus. For deep inside of us live all kinds of other ideal images that drive us and that we bow to time and again, because they are our idols. Our ideal picture of our successful self: the slim figure, the imposing house, the fat car, the ideal partner, the golden job, the huge happiness. Christian art can replace these with new ideal images that can help us to become people of unified character: people whose inside corresponds with their outside, whose deeds rhyme with their words – people for whom Jesus on the cross is a source of inspiration for who they want to become and be.’"

Member's update: Elizabeth Duncan Meyer

Elizabeth Duncan Meyer, sculptor, painter and print-maker, has a new website. Do visit the site in particular for an excellent gallery of Elizabeth's work. 

As stated on the site, "Although a colorist, with a natural tendency towards abstraction and simplification, Elizabeth’s work remains subtle and at a times mystical, interwoven with images reflecting aspects of her soul."

Members' update: Jonathan Evens

Jonathan Evens' book The Secret Chord, jointly authored with Peter Banks of After The Fire, is now available in paperback as well as Kindle. The paperback is being sold directly from Lulu - click here for the link. 

The Secret Chord is an impassioned study of the role of music in cultural life written through the prism of Christian belief.

If you're a Kindle user, then the bumper bargain Kindle version at just £1.95 is available by clicking here. If you're not a Kindle user but would like the online version then click here to download free software to run the Kindle version.

The website for The Secret Chord is also up and running with news, bios, additional links, and room for your comments and views. Click here to access the website.

Jonathan's commission4mission publications featuring his meditations combined with paintings and drawings by Henry Shelton are Mark of the Cross and The Passion: reflections and prayers. These publications enable us to follow Jesus on his journey to the cross reflecting both on the significance and the pain of that journey as we do so.

Member's update: Jonathan Evens

Is there really a 'Secret Chord' that would both please the LORD and nearly everybody else as described in Leonard Cohen's popular song 'Hallelujah'  And are there some people who just don't get music, as in the next line in Cohen's lyric?

These are among the questions explored in The Secret Chord, a new book by Peter Banks  and Jonathan Evens. 

They say, “In the book, we seek to explore a number of the dilemmas which musicians and other artists face, not so much in order to map out one route through or around these dilemmas but in an attempt to get the creative juices flowing. Our experience of creativity is of disparate and often contradictory ideas being crushed, swirled, fermented, shaken and stirred in our minds in order that the fine wine of creativity results. Our hope is that The Secret Chord, by exploring artistic dilemmas from a range of different perspectives, will mature in reader’s minds just like fine wine or a precious pearl.”

“Secret Chord is an interesting and impassioned study of the role of music in cultural life, written through the prism of Christian belief. Covering a huge range of musical styles and influences, from gospel music to X Factor, Secret Chord conveys a great enthusiasm for music and its transformative powers, which readers are sure to find engaging.” Carol Biss, Managing Director of Book Guild Publishing

"Secret Chord is well written, full of wisdom, great quotes and illustrations. It's great to read something about art and Christianity that embraces such diverse material." Rev Dr Hugh Rayment-Pickard, author and co-founder of IntoUniversity .

Peter and Jonathan say, "While a significant number of books have been published exploring the relationships between music, art, popular culture and theology - many of which we have enjoyed and from which we have benefited - such books tend either to academic analysis or semi biography about artistes whose output the writers' enjoy. By contrast, The Secret Chord is an accessible exploration of artistic dilemmas from a range of different perspectives which seeks to draw the reader into a place of appreciation for what makes a moment in a 'performance' timeless and special."

The Secret Chord is available initially on Kindle  (http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Secret-Chord-ebook/dp/B009OG5790/), price £1.95. Those without a Kindle can download a free Kindle PC programme at http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_ln_ar?docId=1000423913.

The Secret Chord website can be found at http://www.thesecretchord.co.uk and will be developed over time to enable further exploration of the issues raised.

Peter Banks is a successful composer and musician with mainstream chart successes in many countries in the world within his most well known musical collaboration, 'After The Fire'.  As well as a musician he has worked in other creative industries and now contributes professionally to various online publications as well as his popular music and technology blog, The BanksyBoy Brief.

Member's update: Colin Burns

Colin Burns is having a free album launch/social event on Saturday 22nd September and also has a new website: www.colinburnsmusic.com. 

The event is at 7.00 - 11.00pm, Cafe Eterno, 34 Neal Street, Covent Garden, WC2H 9PS. This is just over half way along Neal Street (walking from Covent Garden tube) on the right, a bit past the pub. There will be performances from Colin and friends, Jane Sorrell, John McClean and Rod Boucher from 8.00 - 9.30pm approx followed by some of them doing background music. Colin will do a few tunes around 8.00pm and also towards the end of the slot.

It would be great if you could come. Feel free to bring friends. It would be helpful for Colin to know numbers, so if possible do let him know if you can make it

On the website you can download a free song, hear some samples and see a video. If you click on 'shop' you can also hear a sample of every track on the album. Also see: Colin's facebook page for colinburnsmusic. 

Members update

Valerie Dean has recently completed the set of Stations of the Cross on which she has been working. They have a very clear and intense focus on details which are evocative of the whole, as can be seen from the photographs she has taken of the set which can be viewed here. Valerie is keen to discuss ways of making these Stations available for any church that would be interested in having them. 

Nadiya Pavliv Tokarska has sent information about the next exhibition at the Tokarska Gallery. Mythology in London by Anna Alcock runs from 15th - 31st March. The Private View is on 15th March from 6 - 9pm. Anna Alcock uses Greek and Roman mythological images and populates them with modern day narratives that are of significance to her living in London now. The exhibition will also include an exclusive bound suite of 15 etchings, which will be exhibited alongside etching collages and tabloids of myths with personal modern day stories that she imbues with her unique style and bold colours.

The Tokarska Gallery are also publicising their annual 'Drawing the Culture' competition for children and young people (see http://tokarskagallery.co.uk/drawing-the-culture). This is a juried open exhibition of children's drawings.
The next exhibition by the National Society of Painters, Sculptors and Printmakers, of which c4m artists Michael Creasey and Peter Webb are members, will be held at Launderdale House from 13th - 25th March.

Andrew Vessey has set up a website for his art and poetry. He writes that the website offers:

"the chance for making sensible and clear witness to my own Christian values, which have always determined how one paints as much as what I have been trying to achieve. To do theology on line in a website and give voice to the motivation which lies behind many of my ideas is a new challenge. I hope you'll be able to discern more than passing reference to having been a parish priest, or an art teacher for that matter, as the connections I am looking for, and the aspiration for thinking and then developing them as avenues of prayer and reflection, is one I welcome as a very exciting new form of ministry. I trust that my art will help move people on from the very tired language and inadequate symbolism that constitutes so much church art, to one that is rooted in the incarnation within us and divine glory around us."

Andrew will be exhibiting from 29th May - 17th June at Gallery Two, Wingfield Barns, Wingfield, Suffolk. This solo show of 60+ works will have new oil paintings "Looking into Glory" as the major focus, constituting a series of Stations on the Post-Resurrection as described in St John 21.

Jonathan Evens will be speaking on commission4mission and understandings of Christian Art at the February Learning Supper for West Mersea Parish Church (6.30pm, Sunday 26th February). Learning Suppers on Mersea Island include a time of worship, teaching, prayer and a convivial supper of soup, cheese and wine on the 4th Sunday in the month. Jonathan will also be using his Mark of the Cross and Seven Words from the Cross meditations in the three hour devotional which he will be leading at St Margaret's Barking on Good Friday from 12 noon to 3.00pm.

Member's updates

Viki Isherwood Metzler has a new website showcasing her cartoons. It can be found by clicking here and, once there, allows you to sign up to receive a free weekly cartoon.
Christopher Clack has added an essay by James Elkins to his Modern Religious Art website. The essay entitled 'Bridging the Gap between Modern Art and Religion' reflects on Re-Enchantment, a one-day event at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in April 2007 which has recently been written up and published as a book with the same title.

Jonathan Evens will be speaking on commission4mission and understandings of Christian Art at the February Learning Supper for West Mersea Parish Church (6.30pm, Sunday 26th February). Learning Suppers on Mersea Island include a time of worship, teaching, prayer and a convivial supper of soup, cheese and wine on the 4th Sunday in the month.  

Art Trail for the Barking Episcopal Area

The Art Trail for the Barking Episcopal Area now has its own page on the Diocesan website (click here) which enables viewers to see the Art Trail leaflet online.

The launch of the Art Trail generated local publicity, some of which can be viewed by clicking here and here.

Father Benjamin Rutt–Field, Priest at St Paul’s Goodmayes which hosted the launch event, said: “We had a good turnout, there was a broad mix of people; people from the Christian faith, from the congregation, from the Redbridge deanery, a very influential spectrum of people from all different angles.”

“The hope is that people will engage with the church in ways other than just coming in for their normal service, which may put some people off.

“We also want to make people aware that the church is now, and always has really, been a great patron of the arts, and there is great wealth of local talent and local art in the community. So we just want to make people aware that it’s here and people can come and enjoy it.”

Mark Lewis, who researched and wrote the Art Trail leaflet said: “We discovered amazing diversity out there and some incredible surprises; it was quite obvious there were some stunningly beautiful pieces that deserved to be better known.”

“Good sacred art is also like poetry and has many layers of meaning.”

Drawing First

Mark Lewis has a new website for his consultancy work, called Drawing First. He aims to open up the world of freehand drawing to people of all ages for professional and personal development, stimulation or enjoyment.

Drawing First aims to:

• Develop and extend drawing skills and
• Foster creative thinking in a variety of exciting learning contexts.

Mark firmly believes that, in the pursuit of every artistic endeavour, one should always put drawing first and says:

"Drawing is a great way to 'see' and a powerful means of personal expression and communication. Drawing can also be a journey of discovery, inspiring, reflective, therapeutic and fun."

Drawing First workshops and events are designed to explore drawing in order to:

• Promote active looking
• Encourage visual enquiry
• Enhance learning
• Stimulate creativity

These are offered to schools, colleges, universities, commercial organisations, museums, art clubs, churches and other community organisations, pitched at different levels of experience and satisfying a wide range of needs. Workshops may be of variable duration and embrace a diversity of drawing practices, techniques and graphic media.