Passion collections: Downloads and use

There have been 365 downloads to date from The Seed of Henry Shelton and Jonathan Evens collections of Passion meditations and images, the most popular being The Passion pdf. Use has been made of these collections, often during Lent and Holy Week, at churches including Cafe Church Kingsley, Churches Together in Cleadon, St Gabriel's Aldersbrook, St John's Seven Kings and St Margaret's Barking.

Churches Together in Cleadon used The Passion meditations and images for their Good Friday walk. Lay Anglicana used a Mark of the Cross image for their post of intercessions for the Second Sunday of Easter. Rev. Steve Santry used Mark of the Cross at Cafe Church Kingsley and wrote that its "stunning artwork and thought provoking words will open up the events around Easter in a new and imaginative way."

Christian Art – fallacy or fusion?

Jonathan Evens is running a course entitled 'Christian Art – fallacy or fusion?' as part of the Eastertide School in the Diocese of Chelmsford. The course aims to explore approaches to and understanding of the relationship between art and faith. 

In this course participants will explore approaches to engaging with and looking attentively at art in addition to exploring the history of art and faith plus definitions of Christian Art. As they do so, participants will also look at contemporary art exhibitions, public art and church commissions.

The Lent & Eastertide Schools are a collection of education, training and skills events across the Diocese of Chelmsford during Lent and Eastertide each year. A series of short courses running across the diocese between Ash Wednesday and Pentecost with a wide variety of themes and costing £15 per course.

'Christian Art – fallacy or fusion?' will take place on five Tuesday evenings beginning 9th April, then from 23rd April - 14th May at St John's Seven Kings (St Johns Road, Seven Kings, Ilford, Essex IG2 7BB). All are welcome to attend. For brochures and booking forms please contact: Liz Watson. Diocesan Office, 53 New Street, Chelmsford, Essex. CM1 1AT. Tel: 01245 294449, email: lwatson@chelmsford.anglican.org.

Dedication of mosaics

The Rt Revd David Hawkins, Bishop of Barking and patron of commission4mission, dedicated new mosaics, commissioned through commission4mission, at St John's Seven Kings today. The dedication took place at the end of the Patronal Festival service for St John's.

The two mosaics were commissioned as part of the development of the community garden at St Johns. They were envisaged as bold, bright works to catch the eye of passers by and draw them into the green space of the garden. Viki Isherwood Metzler has re-created her Graffiti Love design for display on the East wall of the church, while Sergiy Shkanov has added a mosaic to the Trinity sculpture in the remembrance area of the garden. This design of circular and triangular lines connecting three granite shapes is intended to symbolise the constant exchange and interconnections within the Godhead.

Completed commission: St John's mosaics

A commission for two mosaics at St John's Seven Kings has been completed today in readiness for their dedication by Rt Revd David Hawkins, Bishop of Barking, during tomorrow's Patronal Festival service at the church.

The mosaics complete work that the church has carried out to create a community garden and will also feature in both the local Church art trail and the art trail for the Barking Episcopal Area.

Graffiti Love by Viki Isherwood Metzler has been installed on the east wall of the church, where it can be seen by passers-by on the busy Aldborough Road South. The second mosaic is by Sergiy Shkanov and forms part of a Trinity sculpture, designed by the community garden planning group, for the remembrance area of the community garden.  

Commissions update

Commissions are regularly being discussed, explored and developed through commission4mission. We currently have two which are rapidly approaching completion.

St John's Seven Kings have commissioned two mosaics as part of the development of their community garden. These were envisaged as bold, bright works to catch the eye of passers by and draw them into the green space of the garden. Viki Isherwood Metzler has re-created her Graffiti Love design for display on the East wall of the church, while Sergiy Shkanov is currently adding a mosaic to the Trinity sculpture in the remembrance area of the garden. This design of circular and triangular lines connecting three granite shapes is intended to symbolise the constant exchange and interconnections within the Godhead. The church hope to have both works installed for their Patronal Festival this Sunday when they can be dedicated by the Bishop of Barking.

A faculty has been obtained for a second set of windows to be etched by Richard Paton to designs by Henry Shelton for a screen at All Saints Hutton. On this occasion, Henry Shelton's designs are of the four evangelists. The new windows will be located opposite those of the original commission.

Other commissions currently being designed and developed include a holy water stoup by Mark Lewis and an altar frontal by Anne Creasey. Additionally through the art workshop, which was held at St Paul's Harlow and led by Robert Enoch and Dr Philip Jenson during our recent Study Day, we have developed a design for a temporary freize at St Paul's which will tell the big story of the Bible.   

Art competitions - 'Drawing the Culture' and 'Images of Hope'

The Tokarska Gallery, run by c4m member Nadiya Pavliv-Tokarska, is delighted to announce the winners of their “Drawing The Culture” Annual Competition: Nathan John–Baptiste - First Prize; Kathryn O’Sullivan - First Prize; Sofia Shann - Second Prize; and Steven Peralta - Third Prize. The competition was judged by c4m member, Mark Lewis. The Award Ceremony will be on 14 September, 6pm - 8pm and the drawings will be on display at the Tokarska Gallery from 15 – 22 September.

St John's Seven Kings, where c4m member Jonathan Evens is Vicar, is currently running an Art Competition for Bible Year 2011 called 'Images of Hope' which challenges local schools, churches and the wider community to illustrate their Bible story of hope. This competition, based on materials from the Bible Society, invites people to illustrate a Bible story of hope and brings communities together as they think about hope and its meaning. The closing date is 23rd September and the competition is open to children and young people in the following categories: Under 7s; 7-11s; 11-19. All entries to the competition will be exhibited at St John's Seven Kings on Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd October, their Patronal Festival, with a prizegiving ceremony held on 1st September at 2.30pm. c4m artist, Henry Shelton, is among the judges of this competition.

Commission: Fused glass windows at St Peters Harold Wood

Caroline Richardson has just installed our fifth completed commission at St Peters Harold Wood. This commission was for 14 fused glass panels set in steel frames forming two windows; the left window on the theme 'I am the light of the world' and the right on the theme 'I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.' The commission commerorates the completion earlier this year of a major building project at St Peters Harold Wood.

Our earlier completed commissions are:

• Crucifixion and Do this in remembrance of me, paintings by Henry Shelton for the St Lukes Chapel at Queens Hospital Romford (September 2009). Tree of Life, fused glass windows by Caroline Richardson, are also in the St Lukes Chapel;
• Stations of the Crown of Thorns, a set of fifteen paintings by Henry Shelton, for St Pauls Goodmayes (July 2010);
• The Baptism of Jesus, painting by Rosalind Hore, for St Edmunds Tyseley (October 2010) and will be dedicated on Sunday 2nd January 2011 at 10.00am; and
• Etched windows by Henry Shelton for All Saints Hutton with icongraphy depicting Saints Cecilia, Martin of Tours, Peter, Mary, Paul, James the Great, and Margaret of Antioch. A service at which the Archdeacon of Southend will dedicate the windows is planned for Sunday 27th March 2011 at 11.15am.

Future commissions include a holy water stoup for St Margaret Great Ilford and a mosaic for St Johns Seven Kings.

Celebration of Christian Poetry

Ann Creasey, Michael Creasey and Jonathan Evens are all contributing to a celebration of Christian poetry from John Donne and George Herbert to R.S. Thomas, Stewart Henderson, and beyond which will include poetry readings, information on featured poets, favourite poems introduced and read by local clergy, and choral recitals of well known poems. The event takes places on Friday 1st October 2010, 7.30pm, at St John's Church, St John's Road, Seven Kings, Ilford, Essex IG2 7BB. Contact the Parish Office on 020 8598 1536 or info@stjohns7kings.org.uk for more details. This event is part of the London Borough of Redbridge's Word of Mouth Festival and the Patronal Festival of St John's Seven Kings.

c4m artists news update (3)

Nadiya Pavliv features in the Middlesex University Art and Design Degree Show 2010 currently at The Old Truman Brewery (Friday 4th June - Monday 7th June). The exciting range of work on show covers fine art, fashion, graphic design, illustration, photography, interior architecture, furniture, product design and even sonic art!

Kent-based artist and photographer Valerie Dean and Roger Dean will make their London debut on 5th June 2010 when an exhibition of more than 40 of their paintings and photographs opens at independent bookshop and gallery Pages of Hackney in East London. Valerie’s approach to art is refreshingly honest, and her distinctive style has won plaudits from art buyers in Brussels and the UK. To capture the ‘emerging images’ on the canvas, she mixes acrylics with household items bought from her local B&Q – though the final results are far from everyday. A member of the Society of Catholic Artists, many of Valerie’s paintings have a spiritual dimension, with angels, messengers and the holy family emerging from the abstract. Other paintings take their inspiration from landscapes, in the UK and abroad. Roger Dean will also be exhibiting a series of photographic prints on canvas alongside Valerie’s paintings. Taking inspiration from the natural world, water and reflection are key themes, with an international edge.

Photos from the recent Art workshop led by Mark Lewis at St John's Seven Kings can be found by clicking here. An article about the workshop can be found in the current edition of the Ilford Recorder.

c4m artists news update (2)

The story of our charitable donation to the Haven House Children's Hospice features in the current edition of the Ilford Recorder and on the Neighbourhood Love webpage.

Peter Webb is currently exhibiting in the Spring exhibition of the National Society of Painters, Sculptors & Printmakers held in the Crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields until 1st May.

The Illumined Way by Colin Burns features in From the Darkness ... light in contemporary art, 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.

The next Faith & Image event is The Spiritual Power of Drawing, an illustrated talk by Mark Lewis, exploring the drawings of the Renaissance period. There is no charge for this event, which will be held on Tuesday May 11th. 8.00pm, in the Gwinnell Room at St Mary's Woodford, but donations are welcome. Mark's talk will be followed on Friday, May 14th. at 10.30am by a visit to the British Museum to see the major exhibition: Fra Angelico to Leonardo: Italian Renaissance drawings. Meet on the steps of the main entrance of the British Museum, if you wish to attend.

Sarah Ollerenshaw currently features in the opening exhibition at The Moreton Gallery, which aims to promote the work of both established and emerging artists, showcasing talent particularly from the UK but also from around the world. Sarah is planning towards a solo show at St Peter’s Notting Hill and anticipates her work being included in Icon? The Art of Faith at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery in the autumn. She has started Alder Fine Art with Emma Forrester to showcase their own work and to promote other quality, established and emerging artists. Alder Fine Art plan to be at the Cambridge Art Fair in June and Edinburgh Art Fair in November.

St John's Seven Kings is organising an Art & Music workshop on Saturday 29th May from 2.00 - 5.00pm. This workshop has been organised with local churches in preparation for this year's Our Community Festival and is open to all. The art workshop will be led by Mark Lewis and Peter Webb and will involve portrait and landscape drawing on the theme of local people and places. These will then be collaged into larger displays to be exhibited at St Paul's Goodmayes in the week of, and on the day of, the Our Community Festival. The music workshop will gather together and rehearse a singing group able to perform at the Our Community Festival. This workshop is being organised by Rev. Geoff Eze, curate at St John's Seven Kings. The art workshop is on a drop-in basis while, for the music workshop, we need participants to come at 2.00pm and remain for the whole session.

Valerie Dean will be having an exhibition of her paintings together with photographs by her husband Roger Dean in London during the month of June. The exhibition will be held at Pages of Hackney, 70 Lower Clapton Road, Hackney E5 0RN. There will be a private view on Saturday, 5 June from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and they should be very happy to see you there. The exhibition will also be open in June during shop hours, which are Monday to Friday 11am - 7pm, Saturday 11am - 6pm and Sunday noon - 6pm. They look forward to seeing as many of us as possible at the private view. Valerie and Roger's work was recently seen together in a show of 16 Swale artists held at the Horsebridge Arts & Community Centre in Whitstable.

Current journalism from Jonathan Evens includes a obituary for the artist John Reilly in the Church Times, a review of the Resurrection exhibition at Bury St Edmonds to be published in the next edition of Art & Christianity, a response to an Artz Ville article on the Arts Centre Group website, and an interview with Catharine Pusey (then of the Employer's Forum on Belief) in the current edition of the Faith in Business Quarterly.

Harvey Bradley will be contributing work to the summer selling exhibition of work by members of Anglian Potters from Saturday 14 August to Wednesday 1 September in the Old Library, Emmanuel College, Cambridge. The exhibition will be open from 10am to 5pm (TBC). All are welcome, there is no admission charge. This will be an exhibition of work by over 50 members with the work on show covering the entire spectrum of ceramic art and pottery made in the region. Harvey is also involved with the Anglian Potters marquee at the Ickworth Park Wood Sale & Craft Fair, Ickworth Park Gardens on Saturday & Sunday 9 & 10th October.

Jonathan Evens

Mark of the Cross

I AM Love

Jonathan Evens paints in a symbolic expressionist style and has facilitated the involvement of churches in a range of public art projects. His arts journalism has featured in publications including 'Art & Christianity' and 'The Church Times'. He is also a creative writer (meditations, poetry, short stories, and a blog) and the Vicar of St John the Evangelist Seven Kings. Jonathan is the Secretary of Commission for Mission.

Jonathan's paintings can be viewed on the Veritasse website by clicking here. More information about all of Jonathan's creative projects can be found on his blog at: http://joninbetween.blogspot.com/.

Each week he posts a new photograph in his 'Windows on the World' series on his blog. Past images from this series (each of which feature a foreground object framing a background view to suggest the way in which we each see the world from a specific perspective while also simultaneously perceiving something beyond) can be viewed by clicking on the photographs tab in the blog index.