Events in Sussex – Page 8 – Toovey’s Blog

Art & Objects Transforming Lives at Pallant House Gallery

I am always humbled and delighted by the ability of art to transform and enrich our lives. It is for this reason that a team of Toovey’s specialist valuers will be at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester on the afternoon of Monday 29th September 2014, to offer free pre-sale valuations and advice on selling your fine art, antiques and collectables by auction. A third of the seller’s commission for items subsequently auctioned by Toovey’s will be donated to Pallant House to help with the gallery’s important work.

Engaging with art can often reveal to us something of our world beyond our own perception. The process of creating art can enable us to understand something of ourselves, giving voice to where we have come from, where we are and where we would like to be. Pallant House Gallery provides opportunities for art to affect us in both these ways, through its world-class exhibitions, its Learning and Community Programme and its work with the ‘Outside In’ project.

Pallant House has been referred to as ‘a jewel’ and ‘one of the most important galleries for British modern art in the country’. It opened in its present incarnation to national critical acclaim in July 2006. The remarkable £8.6 million build project, which took nearly three years to complete, seamlessly married the original Queen Anne, Grade I listed town-house and the new wing, quadrupling its exhibition space.

Pallant House’s pioneering Learning and Community Programme gives people of all ages and abilities the chance to explore their enjoyment of art. Outside In was founded by the gallery in 2006 with the aim of establishing a platform for artists who have a desire to create but who see themselves as facing a barrier to the art world for reasons including health, disability and social circumstance. The goal of the project is to create an unprejudiced environment which rejects traditional values and institutional judgements about whose work can and should be displayed.

At the heart of Outside In is an avoidance of labelling and there are no set criteria for an artist’s inclusion. Marc Steene, Executive Director at Pallant House Gallery, has spearheaded the project, describing it as a ‘gentle revolution, designed to enable a fairer art world where all who create have an equal opportunity to sit at the table and have their work seen and valued’. In 2013, Outside In won a prestigious Charity Award in the Arts, Culture, and Heritage category.

It is the qualities of community and outreach which lend this fantastic organisation a vibrant quality and give soul to this important regional art gallery.

I will be at Pallant House with a group of fellow Toovey’s experts offering a range of specialisms, including fine paintings and sculpture, European and Oriental ceramics, jewellery and medals, clocks and watches, collectors’ toys, military items and antique firearms and edged weapons. No appointment is necessary; just turn up with your treasures and we will be pleased to provide free auction valuations and advice. If your items are difficult to transport, bring photographs, email images to Toovey’s beforehand or telephone to make an appointment for one of us to visit your home on another day. For more information, please contact Toovey’s.

I am really looking forward to being at Pallant House Gallery, 9 North Pallant, Chichester, PO19 1TJ, on Monday 29th September between 1pm and 5pm. Perhaps your art, antiques and collectables will transform not only your own life but the lives of others through this fundraising event!

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 24th September 2014 in the West Sussex Gazette.

Sussex Artist Andy Waite on the Arundel Gallery Trail

Artist Andy Waite at work in his home and studio in Arundel

This weekend sees the start of the 26th Arundel Gallery Trail and among the participating artists is Andy Waite, whose home at 54 Tarrant Street will once again be given over to an exhibition of his work.

I am visiting Andy as he puts the final touches to the exhibition. There appears to be an ordered approach, which speaks of a generous and enabling discipline. I ask him about his working method. He explains that he is content to paint in his studio for days and weeks without need of contact with the outside world. Yet the inspiration for his landscapes comes from his experience of walking in the countryside. Back in the studio, he returns to his sketchbooks and photographs, constantly in the process of creating, as well as recalling his sense of a particular moment and place in the studio.

Andy Waite – ‘Icon – The Last Farewell’, oil on scaffold board

Earlier series of Andy’s icons reflected memories of his family and friends. This latest series is painted on old scaffold boards. I am interested to understand what the gold halos around these purely imagined faces mean to him. He replies: “The idea there is that everyone is special.”

Andy’s spirituality is bound up with his relationship with the landscape and those who are close to him. These qualities are apparent in his work. Both his landscapes and icons seem to be connected with the 19th century Romantic tradition in art and literature, which witnessed a return to the hopeful belief in the goodness of humanity and the grandeur and power of nature. Its celebration of our senses and emotions sought to balance our reason and intellect.

As we walk upstairs past a series of landscapes, I remark on Andy’s depth of vision. His skilful handling of rich, layered oil paint strikes the viewer’s eye with a particular intensity as each scene unfolds in our imaginations. He responds, “Although I paint for myself, as a creative person it is always with the desire to share my experience of the world with other people. My landscapes don’t tell you the whole story immediately but reveal new insights over time.” Certainly, as you take time to stare and to inhabit his paintings in your imagination, you will find that your perception of the scene will change and evolve as more of the artist’s vision and experience of that particular moment and place is revealed. You will find an honesty in Andy’s work, which reflects both the joys and sorrows of our human experience in the world.

Andy Waite - ‘A Million Beating Wings’, oil on canvas

So what is it like for this contemplative artist to open his doors to Arundel Art Trail visitors, given that his work represents such a personal, connected view of the world and his relationship with it? “It’s actually okay,” he remarks. After a pause, he continues: “It may seem a strange thing to invite strangers into your home. Although it’s hung like a gallery, it is our personal living space. I enjoy it – people’s feedback gives you a real sense of their engagement with your work.” The relationships between the artist and the world and the artist and the patron clearly feed and affirm Andy and his work. My eye is drawn to a large canvas hanging in his studio, titled ‘A Million Beating Wings’. There is a musical quality in its depiction of this winter scene. The vanilla clouds dancing against the cold blue sky are reflected in the lake below, connected by the drama of the trees moving in the cool breeze, which you can all but hear and feel. The composition, light, palette and handling of paint is wonderful. Although abstracted, the subject is still apparent.

Andy Waite – ‘Walking through the Long Grass’, oil on canvas

Andy Waite’s work has been described as being united with the English Romantic tradition and he acknowledges this, pleased by the sense of place in the procession of artists which includes John Constable, Ivon Hitchens, Graham Sutherland and many others. John Piper considered his fellow artist Paul Nash to be part of this tradition. Nash, however, was keen to emphasise the ‘poetic’ in his work. He sought to look beyond the immediate to what he referred to as the ‘genius loci’, the spirit of the place, to ‘a reality more real’. This resonates with Andy Waite’s work. Andy describes himself as an occasional poet but I would say that the poet is at play in all his work, which is united by the ‘poetic’, whether that be in his oil paintings, their titles, his writing or his film-making. Certainly as an artist, he returns again and again to the poetry of the English landscape and the people close to him in his life.

It is not often people have such unmediated contact with an artist and it is very special to accompany Andy Waite and his work at his home. Andy Waite’s solo exhibition as part of the Arundel Gallery Trail runs from this Saturday 16th to Monday 25th August at 54 Tarrant Street, Arundel, West Sussex BN18 9DN. For more information go to www.andywaite.net or www.arundelgallerytrail.co.uk.

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 13th August 2014 in the West Sussex Gazette.

Scottish Colourist J.D. Fergusson at Pallant House Gallery

'J.D. Fergusson in his studio at 4 Clouston Street, Glasgow’, circa 1955, © The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council, Scotland

John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961) is known as one of the four ‘Scottish Colourists’, along with F.C.B. Cadell, G.L. Hunter and S.J. Peploe. Fergusson’s career, however, was much more international than those of his peers. He spent much of his adult life in France and England, which explains his association with the European modern art world and its influence on his work. He has been described as one of the leading figures of Celtic Modernism. In common with his fellow Scottish Colourists, Fergusson painted still lifes, landscapes and interiors, but he was always drawn to the female form.

Fergusson Bathing Boxes — J.D. Fergusson, ‘Bathing Boxes and Tents at St Palais’, 1910, oil on board, presented by the J.D. Fergusson Art Foundation, 1991, © The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council, Scotland

Fergusson Hortensia — J.D. Fergusson, ‘Hortensia’, 1910, oil on canvas, bequeathed by Eric Linklater, 1976, The University of Aberdeen Museums, © The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council, Scotland

Living in Paris between 1907 and 1913, Fergusson found himself at the centre of the birth of modern Western art. It was while he was in Paris that he made his name.

The restrained quality of his work from this period is in sympathy with the new Fauve approach. Fauvism describes a group of early twentieth century artists, including Henri Matisse and André Derain, who emphasised strong colour and painterly qualities over representationalism and Impressionism, as shown in ‘Bathing Boxes and Tents at St Palais’, painted in 1910.

The Fauvist simplicity of his blocked-in colour gives Fergusson’s art a more Expressionist edge. Take, for example, ‘Hortensia’, painted in 1910. The subtle composition gifts this painting with informality and the black edging finely balances the figure. His paintings increasingly recorded a response to a particular place, a moment, and as they did so, they became more vibrant and decorative.

Fergusson 'Danu, Mother of Gods' — J.D. Fergusson, ‘Danu, Mother of the Gods’, 1952, oil on canvas, on loan to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, © The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council, Scotland

The 1930s begun triumphantly for Fergusson when ‘Déesse de la Rivière’ was purchased for the French National Collection. But with the outbreak of war in in 1939, he and his lifelong partner, Margaret Morris, moved to Glasgow. They had met each other in Paris in 1913. The photograph shows Fergusson in his studio in Glasgow in the 1950s; in the corner you can see ‘Danu, Mother of the Gods’. Fergusson often painted stylised visions paying homage to his Celtic roots, like this work from 1952. Here Danu, the mother goddess worshipped by the first Celtic tribes to invade Ireland, is depicted in dramatic pose. The handling of paint, colour and strong composition is typical of this artist’s hand.

Fergusson and Morris co-founded the New Art Club and the New Scottish Group. These exhibiting and discussion societies were at the heart of the arts revival in Glasgow at the time. Fergusson remained a generous man and went to great lengths to help other artists and promote modern art. His generosity is apparent in his work.

J.D. Fergusson’s paintings, with their dazzling palette and dramatic handling of subjects, still capture and delight the viewer’s attention. It is a rare treat to see such a body of work exhibited outside Scotland. The exhibition runs until 19th October 2014. For more information go to www.pallant.org.uk.

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 6th August 2014 in the West Sussex Gazette.

Jonathan Chiswell Jones at Chichester Cathedral

I have long admired the work of Sussex based potter Jonathan Chiswell Jones. An exhibition of his ceramics, titled “Earth, Fire, Gold: Elemental Beauty by Jonathan Chiswell Jones”, is being held at Chichester Cathedral until 14th September 2014.

Last week I wrote about one of our nation’s most famous potters, William de Morgan, who had such a formative influence on the 19th century Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain and a strong association with William Morris. He produced lustre wares, finding inspiration in Persian and Hispano-Moresque ceramics.

Like de Morgan before him, Jonathan Chiswell Jones is a master of carefully integrated patterns. These designs employ motifs drawn from nature, as in the dishes shown here with their reserve panels of flowers and fish.

William Morris famously said: “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” Good advice! Jonathan acknowledges the influence of the ideas of John Ruskin and the example of William Morris and says, “My aim is to make practical and beautiful porcelain and lustreware for use in the home. Making lustreware is a process of hand and head and heart; it is the challenge of practising a craft which utilises all my faculties.”

The dish inscribed “To Everything There is a Season and a Time for Every Purpose under the Heavens” draws its inspiration from that wonderful passage in the Old Testament from Ecclesiastes, chapter three, which has given such comfort to successive generations when they pause to reflect on the seasons of our human lives. The verses describe how God gives each of us things to do in his purpose and how we are to enjoy life as a gift of His Grace.

Born in Calcutta in 1944, Jonathan Chiswell Jones first saw pottery being made on the banks of the Hooghly River, where potters were making disposable teacups from river clay. He was one of Lewis Creed’s pupils. Lewis Creed was a young art teacher at Ashfold School, Handcross, who wanted to introduce his pupils to the joys of making pottery. Inspired by these early contacts with clay, Chiswell Jones has worked as a professional potter for the past forty years. In 1998, he was given an award by Arts Training South, which encouraged him to go on a course about ceramic lustre. He began to experiment with the thousand-year-old technique used by Middle Eastern potters to fuse a thin layer of silver or copper onto the surface of a glaze. This layer, protected by the glaze, then reflects light, hence the term ‘lustre.’ The lustreware on show at Chichester Cathedral demonstrates its continuing ability to capture our imaginations. Clay and glaze, metal and fire combine to produce pots which reflect light and colour, a process in which base metal seems to be turned to gold. Jonathan Chiswell Jones notes: “I am proud to stand in this lustreware tradition, with its roots in the Islamic empire of the 10th century, its appearance in Spain and Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries, its revival in the 19th century by Theodore Dec in France and by Zolnay in Hungary, and in this country by William De Morgan, and more recently by Alan Caiger-Smith.”

The 15th century Bell-Arundel Screen restored to the Cathedral in 1960 in memory of the life of Bishop George Bell by Rev. Walter Hussey

How fitting that, following in such an ancient tradition, Jonathan Chiswell Jones’ work should be displayed in our timeless Chichester Cathedral. William Morris defined art as “man’s expression of his joy in labour”. There can be no doubt that creating beauty in the world is part of our human purpose in this life.

“Earth, Fire, Gold: Elemental Beauty by Jonathan Chiswell Jones” is being held in Chichester Cathedral’s Treasury (next to the North Transept) until Sunday 14th September 2014. While you are there, take a moment to go to the Southern Ceramic Group Summer Exhibition in the Bishop’s Kitchen, adjacent to the Cathedral, sponsored by Toovey’s Fine Art Auctioneers.

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 30th July 2014 in the West Sussex Gazette.

Parham House and Gardens’ Annual Garden Weekend

This week I am visiting the walled gardens in the lead up to one of the highlights of the Sussex summer calendar: Parham House and Gardens’ famous ‘Garden Weekend’. This year’s celebration of gardening at Parham will be opened on Saturday by the BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Joe Swift.

I love the stillness that gathers you in the walled gardens at Parham. It transports you, separating you from the business of life. To create a garden of this subtlety, depth and beauty requires a sensitivity to place, light, the elements and the seasons.

Tom Brown, Head Gardener at Parham, leads a team of gifted people, whose creativity allows this sublime garden to honour the past while remaining forward-looking. I am excited to be meeting Peta Ashton, a gardener and member of this team, whose individuality and talent is apparent in her work in the Parham gardens.

Lady Emma Barnard and I walk from her wonderful house to the gardens and she leaves me in the path between the long borders as she goes off to find Peta. If you have ever dared to still yourself and stand in a landscape, you will know that out of the silence your senses become heightened. You become more alive. Sounds, colours and movement reveal themselves to you. As I stand between these borders with the warmth of the sun upon my face, the wind and shadows cause the soft planting to dance. I become aware of the swathes of colour and their relationships to one another, which, together with the textures of flowers and foliage, form complex compositions. The gentle breeze plays upon the leaves. There is a rhythm and wholeness, born out of this rich canvas. Lady Emma appears with Peta, the sound of their voices and feet on the gravel paths marking their approach.

Borders at Parham House and Gardens — Peta Ashton’s sublime borders at Parham

The borders which have just captured my imagination and gathered me are the work and inspiration of Peta Ashton. I remark on my experience of this particular part of the garden. She listens thoughtfully. Her face breaks into a gentle smile beneath her broad-brimmed hat, evidently pleased by my unexpected response to her work. I ask her what has influenced the garden layout. She replies, “The gardens are laid out in the ‘Old Parham Way’ with secret and open spaces.” There is much talk today of garden rooms but it would seem that this is nothing new at Parham.

Together the three of us walk towards another of Peta’s creations, the restored herb garden, which is bordered by a tall yew hedge of dark green hue. Entering through an arch cut into the hedge, we find ourselves in a secret, sunny garden. A circular stone pond with a lead putto is framed by tall herbs. Excitedly Peta leads Emma and me around the herb garden, delighting in the names, the foliage and the characters of each individual plant. It is apparent that we are in the company of a generous and passionate plantswoman, who expresses her hopes and fears for each of them in turn.

In Tudor times, when Parham was built, herbs were used for their culinary, medicinal and strewing properties. Herbs would be strewn on the floors and surfaces of homes to deter insects and to disinfect, as well as for their fragrant qualities. In this enclosed garden, I am reminded that herbs were associated with the monastic tradition in medicine. It is these influences which are expressed in the disciplined, balanced planting. Peta explains that this would be defeated if it was too ornamental. There is a sense of working with nature and history.

The Gardens at Parham House — A view from the gardens looking towards the house and Sussex Downs

I ask Peta how she comes to imagine and create these remarkable borders and gardens. She pauses for a moment, considering her reply, and then says, “The borders come out of being in this space in silence. It is the combination of this inner criterion and influences from outside which I try to work with.” Being attentive to nature, colour, form and movement requires a particular quality of engagement and a generous discipline – a combination of relationship with our environment and an attempt to shut out the white noise of our lives and be truly present, undistracted in the given moment. It is a form of meditation, of prayer. Peta clearly understands this and it gifts her creativity and remarkable vision with depth and subtlety. She is both artist and gardener.

Calling and vocation can be expressed in infinite ways. Peta Ashton’s sense of vocation towards her work, like her gardens, is inspiring. It is bound up with her very personhood. Like so much at Parham House and Gardens, Peta’s tremendously personal expression of creativity is possible thanks to the patronage and involvement of Lady Emma.

Sheltered by the warm hues of the old brick garden walls covered in lichen, these gardens have a remarkable ability to gather and engage people. Families find a gentle place to wander in conversation, their time in the garden informed by the beauty around them. Keen horticulturists will pause to explore the subtleties and effects of the planting and compositions before them. Whatever your approach, though, you cannot fail to wander in this beautiful place without being moved by it.

I am looking forward to the Parham House and Gardens’ ‘Garden Weekend’ this Saturday and Sunday, 12th and 13th July 2014, 10.30am to 5.00pm. For more information go to www.parhaminsussex.co.uk or telephone 01903 742021. Tickets include the wonderful gardens and entry to the house and its superb collections. There are Parham plants for sale too – wonderful stock – so don’t forget to treat yourselves!

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 9th July 2014 in the West Sussex Gazette.