Between

Monday, 30 June 2025

Artlyst: The Art Diary July 2025

My July Art Diary for Artlyst has been published today. The July Art Diary begins with exhibitions in and reflection on ecclesiastical buildings, through the Liverpool Biennial and the Waterloo Festival. Moments from the wide-ranging engagement between religion and art are featured in exhibitions at the Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Waddesdon Manor, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. Reflection on the place of myth in the human story can be found in exhibitions at the Parsonage Gallery and the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. At the same time, ‘Worldbuilding and Wonder’ explores the experience of people with autism about the concept at Firstsite Gallery:

'The late Terry Fyffe was also an artist who dedicated himself to the pursuit of creative expression and spiritual exploration. A new website dedicated to his life, art and legacy has recently been launched. Designed as a resource for artists, curators, collectors, students, and art enthusiasts, this site offers a comprehensive insight into his prolific career and extraordinary body of work.

Fyffe built a remarkable career over four decades, predominantly based in London. He described his style as “figurative, expressionist painting, about the struggle for self-realisation.” Daniel Farson wrote that: “Ffyffe is a true painter in the classical tradition. A fluent draughtsman, he understands the challenge of paint and twists it to his advantage.” ...

I was fortunate to exhibit at St Stephen Walbrook an exhibition that brought together the last works that Fyffe was working on before this profound change combined with his new work depicting the beauty of the hidden world of nature and the inner world of the mind. It was his last major exhibition and one that was particularly satisfying for him.'

For more on Terry Ffyffe see here, here, here, here, and here. For more on Pablo Bronstein see here. For more on Paul Thek see here and here. For more on Paula Rego see here and here.

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -

Monthly diary articles -

Articles/Reviews -

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David Ackles - I've Been Loved.

Saturday, 28 June 2025

Windows on the world (525)

London, 2025

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David Ackles - Love's Enough.

A Path with a Heart: Seeking inspiration from the Nazareth Community

On Day 2 of our HeartEdge event weekend in the Parish of Wickford and Runwell, a Quiet Day was held at St Marys Runwell. Entitled 'A Path with a Heart: Seeking inspiration from the Nazareth Community', it was led by Revd Catherine Duce, Assistant Vicar for the Companions of Nazareth, St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Before the Quiet Day, a Contemplative Walk, also led by Catherine, took place at Wickford Memorial Park. This was an opportunity for us to open our hearts to God’s presence in creation, in the local neighbourhood and in one another. The walk can be viewed on our Facebook page here (https://www.facebook.com/WickfordandRunwellCofE/).

Session 1 of the Quiet Day was 'Silence: the path of contemplation': Silence and contemplative prayer are at the very heart of the Nazareth rule of life. We are formed by this silence. As we enter into silence, we place ourselves in the presence of Christ. We create the place and space for a deeper listening to God, the longings of our own souls and we grow in a deep compassion for the world. In this session we will delve deeply into silent prayer and carve space to listen to the Spirit at work in our lives. No experience necessary. Come simply ready to rest in the presence of God.

Our Midday Prayer was led by Revd Moses Agyam (Billericay Methodist Church and Christ Church United Reformed & Methodist, Wickford).

Session 2 of the Quiet Day was on 'Service: the path of contemplative care': In simple acts of giving and receiving and face to face encounter we discover Christ in those we meet. We recognise Christ’s presence especially among those most in need and fearful at this time. In this session we will reflect upon our own acts of service and explore themes of reciprocity and what a path of contemplative care might look like in your life.

We ended the day with an Informal Eucharist to give thanks for God’s presence and refreshment in the gift of the sacrament.

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Contemplative Walk - Wickford Memorial Park.

Friday, 27 June 2025

Living God's Future Now

An exceptional time of encouragement and inspiration was had today in the Living God's Future Now HeartEdge event held at St Andrew's Wickford.

There was great input from Sam Wells, HeartEdge, Being With, Andrew Earis and the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields. We explored new approaches to mission, covered a wide range of ideas, and each found something inspiring to take home.

Sam Wells and other inspiring speakers shared insights and explored the 4 C's (Commerce, Compassion, Culture, Congregation). We connected with colleagues, shared ideas and were involved in Being With workshops. We also discussed music in mission and enjoyed live performances.

A panel session with practitioners from the Diocese of Chelmsford/Essex explored initiatives that have used one each of the 4 Cs including: Revd Katie Miller & Bill Miller (St Mary’s Becontree) – Community Drama (Culture); Felix Atkin (Sharesy) - platform for hall hire (Commerce); Revd Andy Griffiths (Lead Adviser for Wellbeing and Formation, Diocese of Chelmsford, & Continuing Ministry Development Adviser, Bradwell Area) – Community Organising (Compassion); Revd Alan Moss (Estates Youth Missional Lead for the Diocese of Chelmsford) – Retro Gaming (Congregation).

We enjoyed Great Sacred Music, a 35-minute sequence of words and music which explores through song and readings the great classical music of our religious heritage.

There were workshops on Being With, a life changing way to help people explore the Christian faith. Being With helps people consider Christian faith in new and refreshing ways, without needing prior knowledge, but a simple willingness to share what you do know or feel. 10 additional courses will be launched later this year. They use the same methodology but cover other topics - Church, Creation, Baptism, End of Life and Being With your Significant Other to name a few.

In the evening we enjoyed music for journeying from the earthly joys found in the English countryside to the celestial splendours of heaven with the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields. The Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields sing for services, concerts and events at St Martin’s, covering a huge range of repertoire from the Renaissance to the present day.

Tomorrow, we will take a walk through Wickford Memorial Park opening our hearts to God’s presence in creation, in the local neighbourhood and in one another.

Join us for a contemplative prayer walk on Saturday 28 June in Wickford Memorial Park led by Revd Catherine Duce, Assistant Vicar for the Companions of Nazareth, St Martin-in-the-Fields.

The walk will be begin from the main entrance gates to the Park off the Runwell Road at 9.00 am. Join in person or on Facebook Live (https://www.facebook.com/WickfordandRunwellCofE/).

It will be followed by a Quiet Day at St Marys Runwell called 'A Path with a Heart: Seeking inspiration from the Nazareth Community', also with Revd Catherine Duce. The Quiet Day begins at 10.30 am.
Silence and contemplative prayer are at the very heart of the Nazareth rule of life. We are formed by this silence. As we enter into silence, we place ourselves in the presence of Christ. We create the place and space for a deeper listening to God, the longings of our own souls and we grow in a deep compassion for the world. In this session we will delve deeply into silent prayer and carve space to listen to the Spirit at work in our lives.

No experience necessary. Come simply ready to rest in the presence of God.

Our aim has been to explore and experience a range of mission models and approaches advocated by HeartEdge in order to resource existing mission and imagine new missional approaches or initiatives. These two days are about ideas, connections, doing theology and mission. Approaches/initiatives to be shared include: the 4 Cs; Great Sacred Music; Being With; and The Nazareth Community/Companions of Nazareth.

Since its launch in 2017, HeartEdge has grown to become an international ecumenical movement of churches, notable for its energy and diversity. It rests on two theological foundations: that (1) God is giving the church everything it needs, but too often the church is slow to recognise gifts that come in the form of the stranger or the new venture (2) From the exile of 585 BC, God’s people have habitually experienced renewal emerging out of times of setback, hardship and failure.

Its method is to identify the 4Cs – reimagining church and society through commerce, culture, compassion and congregational life. This means to seek congregational renewal and growth through trusting cultural and charitable initiatives to be sources of energy rather than causes of exhaustion, and to transform financial sustainability through commercial ventures.

HeartEdge is a vision and a movement for renewing church. Renewing means reimagining, empowering and growing. https://www.heartedge.org/

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Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields - Morning Song.

Thursday, 26 June 2025

An evening with Neil Tye and Make Space for God

An evening with Neil Tye
Friday 4 July, 7.00 pm
St Andrew’s Church, 11 London Road, Wickford SS12 0AN

For the last 25 years Neil Tye has been working professionally, as a physical visual theatre performer, instructor, teacher, and installation artist, and has taken his performances, and teaching skills around the world. Hear stories about his music, performance, and painting.

Part of ‘Unveiled’, the Friday night arts and performance event at St Andrew’s Church

Artist Statement

Neil’s artistic practice is grounded in an intuitive and process-driven approach, wherein the act of painting itself dictates the final composition. Rather than adhering to predetermined concepts, he engages with the canvas through spontaneous mark-making and gestural forms, allowing the work to evolve organically. While his initial engagement with a piece may be sparked by a particular colour or shape, it is the dynamic interplay of movement, texture, and form that ultimately guides its development.

By embracing spontaneity and fluidity, his work exists at the intersection of abstraction and interpretation, inviting viewers to engage with the imagery in a way that is both personal and open-ended. Through this interplay between process and meaning-making, Neil`s paintings function as both intuitive expressions and conceptual explorations of movement, memory, and transformation.

About the artist

Neil Tye (b. 1963, London UK) is a Denmark-based artist with a background in both visual arts and physical theatre. Initially working as a performer and educator in physical theatre, he transitioned into visual expression 15 years ago. He holds an MA in Professional Practice from Middlesex University, London, and has exhibited, performed, and taught extensively across Europe and beyond. His exhibitions include venues such as the arts and culture centre Spinderihallerne (Denmark), the arts centre Banco de Nordeste (Brazil), and The Post Houston TX (USA), among others. Drawing from his multidisciplinary background, Neil’s work explores movement, form, and storytelling through visual mediums. He continues to create from his studio M10 in the Art zone area here in Spinderihallerene.

'The things we carry'

Following its initial display at Spinderihallerene in April, Neil's latest exhibition 'The things we carry' will be shown at Redbud Arts Center, Houston, from 7 - 28 June. This is a collection of mixed media works that centre around the nature of human connection. To mark the opening, Redbud Arts Center will host a special one-night performance by the internationally acclaimed Ad Deum Dance Company. The performance, inspired by themes from Tye's exhibition, will weave movement, storytelling, and live interaction with the artwork, offering audiences a multidisciplinary experience that bridges visual art and contemporary dance.

Neil says of the exhibition: "The title of this exhibition was inspired by reflections I had while creating my recent body of work. The first thought centres on the fundamental nature of human connection—we are not meant to navigate life alone. We rely on one another for support, understanding, and encouragement, whether through conversation, shared experiences, or emotional upliftment. The second thought arose from one particular painting, which evoked the image of an overloaded truck. This visual metaphor led me to consider how, in life, we accumulate and carry various burdens—emotions, worries, frustrations, memories, secrets, hopes, and dreams. These intangible yet weighty elements can become overwhelming, making it evident that we cannot bear them alone. At times, we must find ways to release or share these burdens, but this raises important questions: Where do we turn for relief? To whom do we entrust our heaviest thoughts? And how can we cultivate a sense of communal support to help lighten the loads we all inevitably carry?"

Make Space for God

Saturday 5 July, 10.00 am - 4.00 pm

Miracle House, Silva Island Way, Wickford

A day of creativity and inspiration led by Anja and Neil Tye, the visionary leaders of "Art Encounter" from Denmark.

Art Encounter is an international arts ministry under Rescue Team which is run by married couple Neil and Anja Tye who are based in Denmark.

Neil and Anja are trained artists, and have been using their artistic skills as artist missionaries for many years. They have worked with different Christian organisations and churches from around the world such as Creative Mission in Sweden, Creative Arts Europe in Belgium, YWAM Costa Rica, Circus Victory Brazil, Ad Deum Dance Company USA, Iris Ministries Brazil, Acts Academy International Bible College, to Euroclass youth Mission boarding school in Denmark.

Art Encounter communicates the Gospel by using the arts, from dance, theatre, creative writing, and the visual arts and painting in various settings both in Denmark and around the world.

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Glen Hansard - Down On Our Knees.

Saturday, 21 June 2025

David Ackles and After The Fire

This weekend I received copies of Mark Brend's Down River: In Search of David Ackles and the After The Fire box set Bright Lights. Both offer fascinating reflections on how creatives can explore aspects of Christian faith in and through popular music.

Down River is described as follows:

"Down River: In Search Of David Ackles is an illuminating study of mythmaking, the popular music industry, and a forgotten enigma of the 1970s.

In 1972, David Ackles’s third album, American Gothic, was released to a flurry of press plaudits declaring it to be ‘the Sgt Pepper of folk’ and one of the greatest records ever made. Yet the album, like its two predecessors, failed to sell, and after one more record, its creator simply vanished. He found work, raised a family, and died a couple of decades later, having never made another record.

Today, Ackles’s music is largely consigned to the streaming netherworld. It is yet to be properly repackaged and reappraised, and he remains largely unknown. But there is no middle ground. You either love him or you’ve never heard of him. His admirers range from Black Flag’s Greg Ginn to indie polymath Jim O’Rourke to Genesis drummer turned platinum-selling solo artist Phil Collins. In 2003, when Elvis Costello interviewed Elton John for the first episode of his television show Spectacle, the two spoke at some length, and with palpable respect, about Ackles’s great talent, before performing a duet of his ‘Down River’—the same song Collins had selected for Desert Island Discs a decade earlier.

David Ackles did not make rock’n’roll music, and Down River is not a rock’n’roll story. It is a search for an artist who got lost. Not a pretty-good, I-wonder-what-happened-to-him sort of talent, but a man revered as one of the greats. Drawing on conversations with Ackles during the last year of his life as well as full access to archive material, it positions him as one of the great maverick talents of popular music—an equal of Scott Walker and Tom Waits. It seeks to understand the disconnect between his obvious gifts and his commercial failure, and wonders about the fickleness of fame and cult status.

How does this process of retrospective recognition work, and why does it happen for some but not others? Was Ackles’s music just too strange, or might his time yet come? And what do the answers to these questions say about the mythmaking of the popular music industry—and about us, the audience?"

For more on David Ackles see here.

The definitive collection of After The Fire, 'Bright Lights' contains all of the bands five albums as well as demos, B-sides and live tracks, with 12 recordings that are issued here on CD for the first time and 14 that are completely unreleased. The project has been overseen by founding member Peter Banks who, along with members Andy Piercy and John Russell, has been interviewed exclusively for the sleeve notes and has also opened up his photo archive, providing a wealth of rare images.

Disc One features the band's debut album 'Signs Of Change' as well as bonus tracks.
Disc Two contains three early demos, previously unreleased on CD as well as 13 previously unreleased demos recorded in preparation for 'Laser Love'.
Disc Three features 'Laser Love' that includes hit single 'One Rule For You' as well as rare single edits, B-sides and live tracks.
Disc Four includes '80-f' as well as nine recordings that have never been issued on CD before, including rare B-sides and seven tracks from the original version of '80f'.
Disc Five contains 'Batteries Not Included' and two bonus tracks.
Disc Six features 'AT2F', one track unreleased on CD, a completely unreleased track as well as a rare extended version of the band's hit 'Der Kommissar'.

For a review of 'Bright Lights' by Rupert Loydell see here. For more on After The Fire see here.

My co-authored book with Peter Banks from After The Fire, ‘The Secret Chord’, has been described as an impassioned study of the role of music in cultural life written through the prism of Christian belief.
The book can be purchased from Lulu - https://www.lulu.com/shop/jonathan-evens-and-peter-banks/the-secret-chord/paperback/product-1pey2g67.html?q=peter+banks&page=1&pageSize=4

Covering a range of musical styles and influences, from gospel music to X Factor, The Secret Chord conveys enthusiasm for music and its transformative powers. The book asks 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'?

While a significant number of books have been published exploring the relationships between music, art, popular culture and theology - many of which Peter and I 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 seeks 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.

Peter Banks and I wanted to write a book that would be an accessible interesting read but also with sufficient depth to engage those with an interest in academic and theological study. Peter 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.

Rev Dr Hugh Rayment-Pickard, author and co-founder of Into University said "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."

Carol Biss, Managing Director of Book Guild Publishing, said “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.”

Heather Joy Rowe said it is a highly informative and eye-opening book: 'The writers ... are delving into the arts, mainly looking at the subject from a theological point of view and they have certainly opened my eyes as before reading this book I had a very 'one-dimensional view' of this huge subject.'

Another response noted: "For someone who treats music as art, as something to be understood as an art form within a particular context etc etc, or someone who is themselves creatively active, then it's certainly interesting and worthwhile reading. You might have an epiphany!"

Rod Williamson said: "The book gives a very thoughtful look at the artist's role, inspiration, challenge and so on. There are many examples and anecdotes from popular and classical fields, and beyond the realms of music. As one who wouldn't know the difference between a D minor and a Morris Minor it kept my attention throughout, but I'm sure it would appeal to the Monsieur Highbrow fraternity."

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David Ackles - Be My Friend.