Radiant Light

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31. "Was it difficult at first to find the best way of applying von Itten's colour theory to your work?"

MORE CREATIVITY

It was not difficult to make the transition from guesswork to more confident work in colour. I suppose it was like my attempts at cooking, when I was first married. I could throw a few ingredients together, for a few months, and produce meals, though not always nice ones. But once I bought a good recipe book, I was able to cook with a new confidence. Almost every meal was tasty; and the recipes did not chain me but liberated me. From their 'rules', I could move further on, and become truly creative, once I'd learned the principles of cookery. And so with painting; the colour theory freed me to be more confident and then to work out my own favourite colour combinations and theories.

32. "You were influenced by von Itten in knowing how to match certain colours to others, but how did you come to a decision about which whole colour schemes to use, i.e. why a painting may be generally green and blue rather than brown and orange?"

Von Itten's help was invaluable, in judging whether to make a particular painting an expression of harmony, or anguished contrasts. Yet the choices I made about colour were still my choices. If I decided on an utterly harmonious range of colours for a painting of the approach to Heaven, for example, I had no guidance from von Itten or anyone on whether to use six paled hues from one side of the colour chart, or three intense adjacent hues from another side.

I learned to place a number of colour sketches beside a monochrome image, to see what sort of 'mood' was represented in the picture, or encouraged by it. Then I would decide, for example, whether a 'Heaven' painting would be best expressed through several pastel hues, or bands of intense yellow, yellow-orange and orange - perhaps with a touch of pale blue somewhere, to make the yellow 'sing' more brightly. So these were decisions to make from start to finish of every painting, though the original image had arrived in my soul as a free gift from God, and then remained in my memory.

33. "Did your use of colour change much during the years you first started using von Itten's colour theory?"

COLOUR AND SUBJECT MATTER

As the years went by, I became braver in my use of colour. I experimented a bit more. I also went to a gallery whenever I saw an interesting exhibition advertised, perhaps two or three each year. So I kept on trying to improve my painting; but there have been no drastic changes. My artistic life has become divided into pre-von Itten and post-von Itten eras; and it seems almost a miracle to me that the post-Itten era should be the same as the religious-painting era. Colour and subject-matter have come together to surprise me in a way I would never have dreamed of.

34. "What different kind of mediums did you work in with these new religious pictures?"

A HESITANT BEGINNING

When I decided to record the images I'd been given in prayer, I was awe-struck by some of them, particularly by 'Christ the Bridge', and others, that were like nothing I had ever seen before. Yet they were beautiful, it seemed to me, in their simplicity and truth. I felt so unworthy to have such a gift that - still telling no-one - I plucked up courage to make, within a single week, pen and ink sketches of the first seventy-seven images, from memory; then I continued with such sketches as further images were given to me in the same manner. A few, as I said, I reproduced in full-colour oils - and I re-did the whole collection later on, in monochrome water-colour, as I'll describe in a moment.

35. "Why did you choose to do the first large-scale paintings in oil rather than another medium?"

A SWIFT AND EFFECTIVE MEDIUM

As I mentioned earlier, I first did my large religious pictures in oils in order to get away from the time-consuming detailed style of my flower-paintings. I wanted a style that was swifter, when I tired so easily, yet which was powerful and beautiful; and it's possible to convey a lot in just a few strokes of oil, if one has made wise decisions about composition and colour. I'd better say here, however, that although I've mentioned 'canvasses' throughout this interview, it was in about 1988, as I thought about large religious works, that I decided to paint on board. Boards would be easier to prime than canvas; and I hoped that they would serve just as well for the sort of images I had in mind.

36. "Did you do a colour chart first before doing the oil painting?"

AVOIDING GUESS-WORK

Filled with fervour for the subject matter, I occasionally rushed to do a painting without first working out an approximate colour theme; and it rarely went well. I would find myself stuck, wondering whether to add one colour or another, to a particular area; and unless you actually put the paint on the board, or hold up to the board a piece of paper with the exact colour on it, you can't be sure of the effect. So I became more disciplined, from sheer common-sense, as I regretted the waste of time whenever I made mistakes. Sometimes I had to scrub out a section of a half-finished oil painting; or I even had to discard a picture and start again, if I had ruined an area that should have remained pale, by using on it one of the pigments that tends to stain the white primer.

37. "What would you call your style in the first 'Mass' series of oil paintings?"

A VIGOROUS STYLE

If I have to label the style of my Mass Paintings, I'd call them Expressionist pictures: not quite Fauve, but more vigorous and colourful, perhaps, than the Impressionist style; however, I was not trying to invent a style. The style arose, of itself, from the brushwork and colour I needed to use to convey that sort of experience and imagery.

38. "Were the first 'Mass Paintings' exhibited anywhere?"

PICTURES FOR MEDITATION

The then Rector of the local Anglican church of St. Nicholas asked if I'd allow the first eighteen Mass Paintings to be placed around his church interior for a few days. I think this was in 1992. Then, at the suggestion of the Administrator of Westminster Cathedral the complete set of twenty 'Mass Paintings' was hung in a side chapel of Westminster Cathedral for the whole of Holy Week in 1993.

I've no qualms about exhibitions of art in a church if it's for meditation, not sales, and if the pictures will add to the atmosphere of prayerful reverence and not detract from it. The same set of pictures was then exhibited in the Bar Convent Museum, in York, for about a month. I gave a talk on them, using slides, to a seven-hundred-strong group of Eucharistic Ministers who had gathered at York University for a day of recollection; and the images were well-received, and seemed to be helpful.

39. "Have other occasions arisen, when you have spoken at length about your religious art?"

SHARING GOOD NEWS

It has been satisfying to be able to speak about my work on many occasions, and even more satisfying to be able to proceed from talk and discussion to prayer, in different venues, with people who have beliefs and priorities in life similar to my own. Meanwhile, it's comforting to know that most people can access a lot of paintings through our non-profit sales of cards and books, and through our Web-site.

SPEAKING ABOUT THE WORK

There have been other occasions on which I've discussed my work, when I've been invited to a meeting of Confirmation candidates and their parents, for example, in another parish. Or I've been to a womens' group at a different church, or a Catholic Social Club or a nursing home; or I've led a retreat at a Catholic Boarding School. Merely listing these different venues makes me realise how good God has been not just in giving me images to paint, but also in giving me the words with which to describe them - and I don't mean just the 'Teachings' which accompany them in my prayer. I am referring to the fact that when I first became a Catholic I knew what I believed, but I could hardly string two words together to explain my beliefs to other people; and I was hesitant to talk about myself because I had been told as a child that it was rude to do so - and vulgar to talk about one's feelings or one's health. This must have been one of the reasons why the Lord - Who knows everything, and knows everything that's going to happen - intervened, to give me practice in speaking about Him and about prayer.

A LITTLE PAMPHLET

Christ invited me, in about 1990, to write a little pamphlet about the visions He'd given me in prayer. He asked this of me when I was in church as usual, for daily Mass. He asked me to show the booklet to my Parish Priest, and then to offer it to people I met, to encourage them to persevere in prayer and in love for Him. I was horrified at the thought of doing such a thing in my own town, where I'd lived for nearly twenty years; but I wanted to be obedient; and so I did initiate lots of encounters and conversations - some embarrassing, others heartening; but as this 'mission-work' went on, I found myself becoming more and more fluent and fearless in speaking about Christ even to strangers. And all that stood me in good stead, later on, when it became necessary for me to speak even further afield about the images He'd given me about the spiritual life.

40. "How did you feel to be exhibiting work that was so different from that which you had exhibited before?"

KEEPING IN TOUCH

It was strange, but exhilarating, to be sharing these new pictures. It was only then that I began to realise that there is a great lack of religious images to do with the Mass. Perhaps that was why the Lord was giving me so many of them. Indeed, He soon explained to me, for the first time, in the early Nineties, that the numerous 'teachings' and images that He was giving me in prayer were a gift to be shared widely in the Church, to help people in their Faith; and He asked me to speak about these things yet again to my Parish Priest. It was Christ's wish that as I began a work meant to help Church members I would in fact be closely in touch with those in authority in the Church. It was only courteous, after all, to keep them informed, through my then Parish Priest (who is now deceased). So I did as the Lord asked; and I was made much more confident about recording what the Lord gave me, by the priest's affirmation that it was a gift from God.

SHARING MY JOY

It became thrilling to share the work, because it satisfied me on a number of levels. First, I like to share whatever gives me joy. Secondly, I've always tried to share my Catholic Faith, with people who are willing to hear about it. Thirdly, the colours thrilled me and made much of my earlier work seem very dull. Fourthly, these pictures seemed to touch people very deeply; fifthly, I was painting pictures about things that were at the very heart of my life. I could live without flowers and landscapes, if I had to, but I would hate to think that I would ever live without God and prayer. I had almost been in that state, years before, and never wanted to return to it. Finally, I began to see that for the first time I really felt that in my art, I was doing more than just using skills, or entertaining myself, or giving pleasure to other people. I felt that what I was doing was really important for other people. I had no clear understanding of where the painting was going, but I felt fulfilled in a new way, as well as in an artistic way, to a depth I'd never before known in connection with art.

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