Last night I visited the
Well House Gallery at Horndon-on-the-Hill to see
The Perceptualist Eye by
Tim Harrold. This exhibition can be seen until 10 June.
The Well House Gallery is a friendly and vibrant art gallery championing artists and connecting creative people, which has developed from the running of
‘24-7 Create’ exhibitions by the
24-7 Prayer Boiler Room Community.
Tim defines 'Perceptualism' as 'the place where the conceptual and the metaphysical meet', and comes from the word 'perceive'. 'The Perceptualist Eye' is therefore about a way of seeing, a worldview, a certain perspective. Informed by his Christian Faith and inspired by his pilgrimage through life with Jesus, many of Tim's pieces are in some way 'prophocative' 'visual parables'.
Working mostly with mixed media, Tim brings together 'found objects' and rearranges them into new contexts, scenes and stories. Tim often incorporates words in the images he creates. This reflects his loves of graphic design and writing, especially 'found poetry'.
The Well House Gallery sits across the street from The Swan with its community art gallery in which Revd Max Blake, Associate Priest in the
United Benefice of Orsett, Bulphan and Horndon-on-the-Hill, has just finished showing his visionary drawings of the Life of Christ.
Thurrock is a place of industry and transport. Visually it has little connection with the Essex of
John Constable with his idyllic rural scenes of hay carts and country folk. What Thurrock does have is striking industrial architecture and the busy River Thames with its factories and ports visited by ships from all corners of the World. The people of Thurrock regard themselves as gritty realists. Thurrock doesn’t shout about its art. Yet the
Thurrock Art Trail, with which the Well House Gallery and Tim Harrold are deeply involved, demonstrates that the area hosts many and varied artists.
In 2012 four local artists sought to raise the public profile of the arts in Thurrock by organising an Art Trail under the aegis of
Essex Summer of Art. Their work was shown in various locations round the Borough. Thurrock Art Trail has now matured and is no longer a showcase of the small number of artists organising the event. It is now a framework that sets the dates and co-ordinates publicity to allow solo artists or collaborative groups to present their own exhibitions at venues of their own choosing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iona -
The Ancient Wells.
