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Showing posts with label colchester. Show all posts
Showing posts with label colchester. Show all posts

Tuesday, 1 September 2026

Artlyst: September Art Diary 2026

For my September 2026 Art Diary for Artlyst, we go travelling – to a variety of different locations and countries, across thresholds, and into the past. Locations visited include: Colchester, Durham, London, Melbourne, Milan, New York, Pollença, Salisbury, Salzburg, and Southampton. Featured artists include: Balraj Khanna, Anselm Kiefer, Luis Maraver, Andrea Modica, Isabel Nolan, and Sean Scully. Also highlighted are sculpture exhibitions including ‘Frieze Sculpture’ and installations by Rachel Kneebone and Zak Ové.

See also my review of 'Walls and Windows' at The Minories in Colchester, while pieces on Sean Scully can be read here, here and here, Rachel Kneebone here and here, and Anselm Kiefer here.

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -
Monthly diary articles -
Articles/Reviews -

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Buddy Miller - Don’t Look Back (with Dan Penn).
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 22:17 0 comments
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Sunday, 30 August 2026

International Times: Self-Restoration

Here's my latest exhibition review for International Times, which is on 'Walls and Windows' at The Minories in Colchester:

'The exhibition suggests that we all map and journey out in the world from the point at which we are born. Our sense of belonging and how we navigate correctly is based on the encounters we have with other beings and the relationships made. When our right to be at peace on our land is disrupted or taken away, we are traumatised and this destroys our bearings and ability to navigate the bigger whole. This exhibition seeks to restore us to ourselves, to one another, and to the world around us.'

My earlier pieces for IT are: an interview with curator Jacquiline Creswell; an interview with the artist Alexander de Cadenet; an interview with artist, poet, priest Spencer Reece, an interview with the poet Chris Emery, an interview with Jago Cooper, Director of the the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, a profile of singer-songwriter Bill Fay, plus reviews of:
Several of my short stories have been published by IT including three about Nicola Ravenscroft's EarthAngel sculptures (then called mudcubs), which we exhibited at St Andrew's Wickford in 2022. The first story in the series is 'The Mudcubs and the O Zone holes'. The second is 'The Mudcubs and the Clean-Up King', and the third is 'The mudcubs and the Wall'. My other short stories to have been published by International Times are 'The Black Rain', a story about the impact of violence in our media, 'The New Dark Ages', a story about principles and understandings that are gradually fading away from our modern societies, and 'The curious glasses', a story based on the butterfly effect.

IT have also published several of my poems, including 'Spencer Reece at Bemerton' which is based on the visit that I made to Bemerton in 2026 with Spencer Reece, 'The ABC of creativity', which covers attention, beginning and creation, and 'The Edge of Chaos', a state of existence poem. Also published have been three poems from my 'Five Trios' series. 'Barking' is about St Margaret’s Barking and Barking Abbey and draws on my time as a curate at St Margaret's. 'Bradwell' is a celebration of the history of the Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall, the Othona Community, and of pilgrimage to those places. Broomfield in Essex became a village of artists following the arrival of Revd John Rutherford in 1930. His daughter, the artist Rosemary Rutherford, also moved with them and made the vicarage a base for her artwork including paintings and stained glass. Then, Gwynneth Holt and Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones moved to Broomfield in 1949 where they shared a large studio in their garden and both achieved high personal success. 'Broomfield' reviews their stories, work, legacy and motivations.

To read my poems published by Stride, click here, here, here, here, here, and here. My poems published in Amethyst Review are: 'Runwell', 'Are/Are Not', 'Attend, attend' and 'Maritain, Green, Beckett and Anderson in conversation down through the ages'.

I am among those whose poetry has been included in Thin Places & Sacred Spaces, a recent anthology from Amethyst Press. I also had a poem included in All Shall Be Well: Poems for Julian of Norwich, the first Amethyst Press anthology of new poems.

'Five Trios' is a series of poems on thin places and sacred spaces in the Diocese of Chelmsford. The five poems in the series are:
These poems have been published by Amethyst Review and International Times.

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Carolyn Hester - Love Minus Zero No Limits.
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 08:19 0 comments
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Wednesday, 19 June 2024

Artlyst: Lunar Lullabies, David Lock and Concrete Dreams Three Shows To See At Firstsite

My latest exhibition review for Artlyst is of three shows at Firstsite - Lunar Lullabies, David Lock and Concrete Dreams:

"‘Lunar Lullabies’ shows how science, art and imagination have intertwined over the centuries to shape culture and our collective fascination with distant galaxies. Matthew Turner – whose drawing of Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman to travel into space, is included in the exhibition – has written of his excitement when first seeing a rocket: ‘Standing there excited, in awe, overwhelmed by power, scale and raw materials, I felt small.’ It is this sense of awe and wonder that the exhibition principally communicates, feelings also clearly generated by Turner’s ‘Saturn V 1’ and ‘Vostock I’.

Turner is one of several artists included here who are members of the International Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAA) the world’s only guild of artists dedicated to creating images of space. Essex-based IAAA artist Jackie Burns aims to inspire people with the awe and beauty of space and astronomy. She led some of the workshops to develop the exhibition and has just become President of the IAAA. Her depiction of one of the most iconic spaceships in human history ‘Saturn V, Apollo 11, on Crawler to Launchpad 39A’ consists of different-sized circles of various colours that slowly reveal the image the longer you look."

Last year Jackie Burns exhibited at St Andrew's Wickford - see here and here. She has recently said "I’m always amazed at the unexpected directions my journey as a visual artist takes me. Last year I exhibited my artwork inside a local church and as a direct result of that I’m currently exhibiting in the largest public art gallery in Essex. Never give up…"

Interviews -
Monthly diary articles -
Articles/Reviews -

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Nirvana - Rainbow Chaser.
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 17:57 0 comments
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Monday, 18 March 2024

The Minories, Colchester




The Minories is an arts charity and gallery in an historic townhouse in central Colchester. 74 High Street has long been an essential part of any visit to the town centre, and in the warmer months its secluded garden is a particular delight. To discover its peace and calm for the first time is a memory that certainly seems to remain in many visitors’ hearts. Inside, in the galleries and reception rooms, elegant spaces can be found ideal for quiet, visual contemplation.

Clarence Victor Batte-Lay (1865-1935) was a Colchester man who had done well in the brewing business in Norfolk, and retired to Colchester where he built a collection of art and artefacts. His widow, Mrs Margaret Eleanor Batte-Lay, died in 1955 and left the collection and a sum of money to purchase ‘an ancient building of antiquarian or archaeological interest’ to house the collection, in memory of her husband, and ‘for the benefit and advantage of the inhabitants of Colchester’.

“…The exhibitions held by the Trust from 1958 to 1993… numbered some four hundred. [This] represents an artistic achievement of which any gallery could be justifiably proud. Constable, Becker, Bawden, Nash, Bratby, Manet and contemporary artists such as John Doubleday, Anthony Atkinson, Guy Taplin, nine names chosen at random from this eclectic list, indicate the range and quality of the shows. The exhibitions included regular shows by the Colchester Art Society and Colchester School of Art and Design. And embraced sculpture, ceramics and textiles as well as paintings and prints.” (John Woods and Clifford Welch, Celebration of 50 Years of the Victor Batte Lay Trust, 2005)

Firstsite occupied the Minories and ran a vibrant gallery and art centre throughout the 1990s and until 2009 when it moved into its new building next door. Then Colchester Institute took the lease and used the Minories to accommodate its postgraduate MA course in fine art. With the arrival of the Covid19 pandemic lockdown, the Institute closed the building and announced it would not reopen during the remainder of its lease. At this announcement, the Victor Batte-Lay Foundation decided the time had come to take back control of the Minories and, working with artists, arts organisations, community groups, public bodies, and the people of Colchester and North Essex, to reimagine the Minories as an arts centre for the post-Covid twenty-first century.

The current exhibitions are:

Hayletts Gallery: Contemporary and Modern British Original Prints
Saturday 16 – Sunday 24 March 2024, 10am - 4pm

A selection of screenprints, etchings, woodcuts, linocuts and lithographs, incorporating works by many of the most noted artists from 1940’s to the current day. Includes prints by pioneering Essex artists:- Edward Bawden, Eduardo Paolozzi, John Nash, Humphrey Spender and Michael Rothenstein. There are also artworks by:- David Hockney, Bridget Riley, Henry Moore, Eric Ravilious, Barbara Hepworth, Paula Rego, Tracey Emin, Elisabeth Frink, Elizabeth Blackadder, Peter Blake, Mary Fedden, Edward Burra, Victor Pasmore, John Piper, Terry Frost, John Hoyland, Julian Opie, Marc Quinn, Albert Irvin, Craigie Aitchison, Anita Klein, Karolina Larusdottir, Patrick Caulfield, David Shrigley and Julian Trevelyan.

Works on Paper from the Victor Batte-Lay Foundation Collection
Thursday 15 February – Sunday 24 March 2024, 10am - 4pm

A exhibition of works on paper drawn from the Permanent Art Collection of the Victor Batte-Lay Foundation, who own the Minories. Featuring Dione Page, Blair Hughes-Stanton, Lucien Pissarro, Lisa Temple-Cox, John Nash, Paul Nash and John Bensusan-Butt.

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Dave Gahan - Kingdom.
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 22:56 0 comments
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Saturday, 3 April 2021

Windows on the world (321)

 

Colchester, 2020

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Gospel Comforters - Yes, God Is Real.


Posted by Jonathan Evens at 14:39 0 comments
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Sunday, 5 February 2017

Windows on the world (330)


Colchester, 2016

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Josh T. Pearson - Sweetheart I Ain't Your Christ.
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 19:34 0 comments
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Friday, 27 January 2017

Windows on the world (329)


Colchester, 2016

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Tim Buckley - Song To The Siren.
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