Mark Cazalet: The Tree of Life

This evening I was at Chelmsford Cathedral for an event with Mark Cazalet celebrating his remarkable painting The Tree of Life. Mark shared insights into the inspirations for and creation of The Tree of Life while exploring some of its key themes with the audience. This event also marked the closing of an exhibition featuring work by local artists from the Artists in the Meadows group. Inspired by Mark’s The Tree of Life, they have created their own collective interpretations, which were on display.

Mark, speaking about the installation, has said previously that the inspiration behind the piece was the music and choral tradition of the Cathedral and that he very much wanted his mural to reflect this, with the swirling motion in the painting representing the musical traditions. Mark wanted the symmetrical design of the tree to represent opposing ideas with the tree bursting into life on one side and dying back on the other.

The lighting in the Cathedral was very different from the church Mark had painted the mural in and he spent several weeks on a cherry picker, changing the colour and bringing the panels to life. His favourite part is Judas resurrected and the idea of the possibility of Judas being resurrected and spending a long time (hence the sandwiches and thermos) at the top of the tree and in turn that we too can be fully forgiven.

I wrote about The Tree of Life, Mark's image of St Cedd, and other artwork in the Cathedral (which includes the sculpture of St Peter holding the key to heaven by Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones on the exterior - see photos above) during my sabbatical art pilgrimage - see here. As part of my sabbatical, I also visited St Alban's Romford which has a ceiling painted by Mark - see here. In the area covered by the Diocese of Chelmsford, works by Mark can also be seen at Frances Bardsley Academy for Girls in Romford and Our Lady of Lourdes, Wanstead.  

Click here to read my Seen & Unseen article on the tradition of visionary artists whose works shed light on the material and spiritual worlds which includes Mark Cazalet, Thomas Denny, Richard Kenton Webb, Nicholas Mynheer, and Roger Wagner. In his talk, Mark mentioned stained glass windows at St Mary's Iffley by John Piper and Roger Wagner - see here.

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The Trees Community - Jesus He Knows.