Rosemary Rutherford: Bradfield, Clacton and Tendring

 As part of preparations for a talk on Rosemary Rutherford's religious art that I am giving, together with Kathy Rouse, at St Mary with St Leonard Broomfield on Saturday 2 November, I visited some of the churches in Essex with windows by her.

At St Paul's Clacton-on-Sea, Rutherford not only created a marvellous East Window for the new church that was consecrated in 1966 but also supervised the transfer of windows from the old church to the new. Her large Dalle-de-Vere East Window depicts the conversion of Saul/Paul on the road to Damascus. Saul is half kneeling, with arms raised above his head, while the brilliant figure of Christ is high above him.

St Lawrence Bradfield has two windows by Rutherford, both in a very painterly style. In 'I am the Light of the World', Christ heals a blind man, while the other is of 'Christ blessing children'. Both windows were given by Martha Louisa Dunning.

Finally, I also saw a wonderful 'Annunciation' window at St Edmund King & Martyr, Tendring. This is a very light and bright Annunciation with yellows, orange and white predominating in the colour scheme. Mary and Gabriel blend through the inventive construction of this tall one light window.

For more on Rosemary Rutherford see here, here and here. For more on artworks in the Diocese of Chelmsford see here.

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Lifehouse - Broken.