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Thursday, 5 November 2026

Artlyst: The Art Diary November 2026

Here's my November Art Diary for Artlyst:

'In ‘Women, Art, God’, art historian and priest Ayla Lepine invites us to explore the relationship between faith and imagination. Across centuries, cultures, materials and subjects, women’s stories and works of art provide wisdom about the power of images. In this book, which I am currently reviewing, Lepine, through vibrant conversations about art, life and faith, enables us to glimpse God in the visions of artists including Frida Kahlo, Artemisia Gentileschi and Sonia Boyce. Women’s art and spirituality guide readers across centuries and continents, encouraging us to take religion’s importance in visual culture and creativity seriously. Women, Art, God provides a bold and fresh approach to feminist theology and art history.

For the November diary, I begin by staying with the question that Lepine explores in her book: How can art by women transform our experiences of spirituality and religion? Highlighted exhibitions include works by Edmonia Lewis, Ethelwynne M. Quail, Emma Kunz, Gabrielle Goliath, Cecilia Vicuña, and Yu Hong. This is followed by commissions and exhibitions involving Graeme Mortimer Evelyn, Maurice Denis, Stanley Spencer, Gary Bunt, Charlie Mackesy, and Mark Dunford. We then move through the centuries with exhibitions moving from Constantinople to the Renaissance and the Dutch Golden Age. I end with a series of relational group shows for European Cultural Centre Italy, Focal Point Gallery, NIKA Projects, The Minories, and Foundling Museum.'

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -

Monthly diary articles -

Articles/Reviews -

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Michael Kiwanuka - Summer Clothes.

Tuesday, 10 January 2023

Launch of Fruits of the Spirit - Art from the Heart,

The launch of the virtual exhibition Fruits of the Spirit - Art from the Heart, curated by the Rev Dr Ayla Lepine (2021–22 Ahmanson Fellow in Art and Religion, The National Gallery) and Dr Susanna Avery-Quash, Senior Research Curator (History of Collecting) at the National Gallery was held tonight at The Foundling Museum.

The 'fruits of the Spirit' are a list of nine qualities found in Saint Paul's Letter to the Galatians in the New Testament. They include peace, joy, love, and patience. Fruits of the Spirit – Art from the Heart focuses on these terms in relation to paintings in the National Gallery's collection, from Titian and Rembrandt to Monet and Van Gogh, featured alongside works from UK regional collections. This exciting new digital project opens new doors regarding accessible online arts content and focuses on the nine qualities themselves as ways of amplifying wellbeing for all people, of all faiths or none.

Fruits of the Spirit: Art from the Heart, is an online exhibition and trail, pairing nine paintings from the National Gallery with nine works in public collections across the UK. Visit the online exhibition.

Each pair represents one of the nine ‘Fruit of the Spirit’ – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control – positive attributes outlined in a letter from Saint Paul in the New Testament.

The virtual exhibition is combined with a free digital catalogue of essays. Over twenty authors, including curators, artists and community groups, as well as a new poetry commission by Dr Aviva Dautch, explore the importance of the exhibition’s themes, from love and family life to self-control in relation to climate change. Including words from a Nurse-in-Residence, a care-experienced young person and social justice charities, these essays aim to bring voices not normally heard in gallery catalogues to the fore. Creating links between paintings within and beyond the National Gallery and fostering interactions through different perspectives in communities and cultures encourages new ways of seeing and more open ways of engaging with one another. As a digital exhibition, 'Fruits of the Spirit' is freely accessible to both new and regular visitors from the UK and beyond.

The Foundling Museum’s ‘Fruit’ is Faithfulness and focussing on maternal faith the National Gallery’s The Finding of Moses by Orazio Gentileschi, dating from the early 1630s, has been paired with their Isabella, Duchess of Manchester, 1738, by Andrea Soldi.

In the story of Moses, his birth mother places him in a basket in the river to avoid certain death, demonstrating immense faith that her child will survive. Her faith is rewarded, and the Gentileschi painting depicts the moment of rescue and hope. This maternal faith is also reflected in our portrait of Isabella, Duchess of Manchester, who was instrumental in the formation of the Foundling Hospital. As with Moses, the birth mothers of children given up to the care of the hospital faced heart-breaking decisions that demanded enormous faith and trust.

As part of the collaboration visitors to the Foundling Museum are able to see in person The Finding of Moses painting, attributed to Venetian artist Francesco Zugno, which is on display next to Soldi’s Isabella, Duchess of Manchester on the first floor.

Lizzie Jones, whose painting 'Couple' at Southampton City Art Gallery is paired with 'The Painter;s Daughter with a Cat' by Thomas Gainsborough, was among those present. With a commitment to direct action in different forms involving making connections with people in order to influence and inform change around issues of military violence and harm, she takes painting commissions for public spaces, for charitable organisations and community groups and for special events / private spaces. She has created and is maintaining the Dye Garden at Southampton's Arches studio complex, while utilising those plants and their colour in print and paint. Puppet Back Up sees giant puppets getting involved in live concerns and beginning to turn up - in time - brought to life with the participation of many.

Canterbury Cathedral’s altarpiece, 'Scenes from the Life of Saint Martin of Tours', 1928–33, by Winifred Knights, also features in the exhibition. It is a powerful example of religious art by a British woman of the last century. This painting represents ‘peace’. A young woman who arrived in Kent as a refugee reflected on the painting in relation to this theme and identified a strong connection between the altarpiece and her story of family, uncertainty, and courage. Knights’s painting is paired with Claude Monet’s 'Water-Lilies' from the National Gallery’s collection. Monet described this work, painted during the First World War, as a ‘monument to peace’. In her catalogue essay, Revd Dr Ayla Lepine argues that contemplating sacred and secular art and relating it to people’s lives today can inspire us all to work for peace when it is most urgently needed around the world.

This free virtual exhibition also includes paintings by Jan Van Eyck, Vincent van Gogh, Frank Auerbach, Turner, Titian, Ernst Neuschul, Eugène Delacroix, Ron Stenberg, Orazio Gentileschi, Andrea Soldi and Thomas Gainsborough.

Other participating organisations:
The Bowes Museum
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts
Canterbury Cathedral
The McManus
Leicester Museum & Art Gallery
Ben Uri Gallery & Museum
The Box
Southampton City Art Gallery

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Carleen Anderson - True Spirit.

Tuesday, 16 August 2022

National Gallery - Crossing Borders (8 September, 6-7:30 pm)

You are invited to a National Gallery public event: Crossing Borders.

This exciting and free public event, held at the National Gallery and livestreamed online, celebrates the Gallery’s new networks for the exploration, study, and enjoyment of sacred art.

Thursday, 8 September 2022
6.00 – 7.30pm (BST)

Sainsbury Wing Lecture Theatre, The National Gallery. Entrance via the Sainsbury Wing.

This event is generously supported by Howard and Roberta Ahmanson.

To learn more about the programme and book your free ticket for in-person or remote attendance, please click below.

Book tickets

Crossing Borders

Focusing on the theme ‘Crossing Borders’ and Orazio Gentileschi’s 'The Finding of Moses', this exciting free event includes a panel conversation with eminent curators and art historians, and a new film presenting different voices discussing the painting in relation to young people, contemporary art, and migration.

The event will be introduced by Dr Gabriele Finaldi, Director of the National Gallery, and will be hosted by the National Gallery’s Ahmanson Fellow in Art and Religion.

Image credit: Orazio Gentileschi, The Finding of Moses, early 1630s The National Gallery, London.

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Larry Norman - Moses In The Wilderness.

Wednesday, 15 April 2020

Followers of the Way

Here's the reflection I shared in today's lunchtime Eucharist for St Martin-in-the-Fields:

‘When this story (Luke 24. 13 – 35) begins, two people are walking along a road, a stranger meets them, he claims he has no knowledge of Jesus’ death, and as they expose their grief this apparent stranger unfurls his insights into scripture and tradition. They persuade him to stay, wanting to prolong the encounter and wanting to welcome him. The food is prepared. The two hosts welcome their guest. And the guest blesses, makes himself known as Host, and disappears leaving them to tell their friends the good news of their encounter.’ (Ayla Lepine - 'Inspired to Follow')

The Emmaus Road story breaks open ways in which we may encounter God.

When Jesus encountered the two disciples on the Emmaus Road on the evening of the first Easter day he met them where they were. Jesus’ incarnation and ministry, above all else, was ‘about being with us, in pain and glory, in sorrow and in joy, in quiet and in conflict, in death and in life.’ Now, he came to be with these two disciples. Coming to be with them meant that he joined them on their journey although they were going in the wrong direction, in other words away from Jerusalem. He didn’t berate, however, or try to re-direct them. He simply joined them and walked with them. All who are beginning to explore the Christian faith are travellers because they are on the way. They may not yet be coming to church, but are committed to taking the next step. One of the earliest names for the people called Christians was followers of the Way, so, ‘right at the beginning of the journey, people need to experience what it means to be part of a pilgrim church.’ ‘Before people can become pilgrims themselves they need to feel happy to travel with us and be open to experiencing life from a Christian perspective.’ (Stephen Cottrell)

Jesus also joins in with their conversation, listening to them first before he speaks. Similarly, our welcome of others must involve an attitude which seeks to get inside the shoes of the other person so that they can be welcomed and accompanied at every point of their journey. Jesus’ first question to the disciples was then one of open vulnerability to their agenda: ‘What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?’ Our practice of offering wonderings to others in response to hearing their experiences is similar. In response to their questions and accounts of what has happened he then breaks open the scriptures, explaining to them ‘the things about himself.’ By this stage Jesus had created a helpful context in which to explore faith. We, too, need to create safe places, where people are at ease, where they can bring their questions, and where they will feel challenged, but not pressured; a space that enables people to question and discover for themselves the significance of Jesus Christ.

Arriving at Emmaus, they invited him in, and as he broke bread their eyes were opened. ‘When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.’’ They had not seen: suddenly they did see. A gesture – a reminder of what Christ did at the Last Supper – has alerted them to his identity. As the etymology of the word suggests, recognition involves an awareness which harks back to something previous. It is a re-knowing of something which therefore requires a pre-knowing. It involves a kind of memory. At Emmaus, their memory is of the Last Supper.’ For us, ‘Our memory of God’ is that ‘bit of human nature which seeks to be in right relation to God, and which means that we can be redeemed.’ (Chloe Reddaway - 'Inspired to Follow')

‘The disciples saw Jesus’ scars as he broke the bread. They remembered his story and realized it was their story. They discerned his body as it became their body. They left the table with hearts on fire. They who before had stood alone were united with the believers. They looked forward to every future meal as a moment of encounter with the risen Christ. They had become what they had eaten, the body of Christ.’ (Sam Wells)

So, at the centre of the Emmaus story is a very simple and ordinary action; breaking bread. Although a simple and ordinary thing to do, it becomes a very important act when Jesus does it because that is the moment of recognition and realisation. Something very simple and ordinary suddenly becomes full of meaning and significance. Their experience was an epiphany, a moment to which our being with, travelling with, and discussion with will often lead. ‘Following Christ’s sudden departure, as a new quality of knowledge fills the room where moments before he broke the bread, the two people who’d been on the road confer and ask each other in bewilderment: ‘Did our hearts not burn within us?’ God invites light into the darkest of corners.’ (Ayla Lepine) A space had been created which enabled these people to question and then discover for themselves the significance of Jesus Christ. They then rushed back to Jerusalem as they couldn’t wait to share with others the good news they have received.

Luke’s account provides us with a rich and challenging story about exploring faith which is hugely relevant for the situation we face today because: ‘our own culture here in … London is not so dis-similar to the ones the first apostles encountered outside the comfort zone of the Jewish faith: a smorgasbord of beliefs, a general interest in things spiritual, a lack of confidence in the meta-narratives that had previously been trusted so much. In this sort of world becoming a Christian will be like a journey, and much of our work will be helping people to make the journey; and much of that will be removing obstacles from the path.’ (Stephen Cottrell)

This story reveals ways to help others experience what it means to be part of a pilgrim church so that right at the beginning of their journey people feel happy to travel with us and are open to experiencing life from a Christian perspective.

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The Call - What's Happened To You?

Thursday, 31 August 2017

St Martin-in-the-Fields at Greenbelt

As part of our content partnership with Greenbelt, St Martin-in-the-Fields contributed music, a new discipleship resource, and HeartEdge reflections on commerce.

Singers from St Martin-in-the-Fields with our Director of Music Andrew Earis, explored through word and song some of the great music of our religious heritage. Great Sacred Music provided an exploration in words and music of some of the UK’s top 100 hymns, including Be Thou My Vision, Abide With Me and Dear Lord and Father of Mankind. Sacred Space was a time of silence, reflection, music and prayer to draw close to God and experience stillness and peace, including music from the Taize Community.

Alastair McKay with Ayla Lepine launched ‘Inspired to Follow: Art and the Bible Story’ by facilitating three taster sessions from this new online interactive discipleship resource. ‘Inspired to Follow: Art and the Bible Story’ is a free resource to explore the Christian faith, using paintings and Biblical story produced by St Martin-in-the-Fields in partnership with the National Gallery.

The course uses fine art paintings in the National Gallery’s collection, along with a Biblical text and a short theological reflection, as a spring board for exploring these two questions:

• How can I deepen my faith in God?
• What does it mean to follow Jesus today?

The course is designed for use in a group, and is intended to build relationships among those participating. It has been structured as 22 hour-long gatherings over three terms, and aims to cover key elements of the Biblical story from Creation to Apocalypse. Each hour-long session can, however, stand alone. So participants don’t need to have attended an earlier session to participate.

The following materials are offered:

• An overview of the course
• Guidelines for the course facilitator(s)
• 22 theological reflections, typically about 8 minutes in length
• 22 handouts with a Biblical text and two reflection questions
• 22 images of paintings from the National Gallery collection
• A list of further recommended resources

To access this free resource, go online and register your details here: www.inspiredtofollow.com .

I contributed to a session entitled 'Cathedrals and commerce: The challenge facing large churches'. This was in The Exchange, a new venue for 2017 that provided the opportunity over the weekend to think together about enterprise for the common good. I was part of a panel chaired by Cliff Mills which explored the reality that large churches are getting involved in enterprise activity to stay open and asked how we can find the right way through commerce and cathedrals. I talked about these questions in relation to HeartEdge, together with The Very Revd John Witcombe, Dean of Coventry Cathedral, Alison Inglis-Jones from the Trussell Trust, and Jonny Gordon-Farleigh from Stir to Action.

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Dear Lord and Father of Mankind.

Thursday, 24 August 2017

HeartEdge August Mailer

The latest HeartEdge Mailer has been published. This month: History Projects and new discipleship resources, connecting with carers and supporting refugees, plus Brené Brown, Stanley Hauerwas, Luke Bretherton, and cycle-based social enterprise - plus Sam Wells on Beveridge and the appreciation of assets.

Our passion is growing kingdom communities via four C’s - congregations, culture, commercial activity and acts of compassion. Find out more at the following HeartEdge events:

25 - 28 August - Greenbelt: Jonathan Evens and HeartEdge will be at Greenbelt over the Bank Holiday taking part with David Alcock in Exchange ideas - come along and if you’re around over the weekend do introduce yourself and learn more about HeartEdge. Also look out for HeartEdge friend Revd Dr Alastair McKay who will facilitate three ‘Inspired to Follow’ sessions with Ayla Lepine an art historian and ordinand on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
11 October West Midlands, Birmingham, St Martin in the Bull ring. 10am - 3pm. HeartEdge Day Gathering 10am - 3pm - with Sam Wells and guests - click here to book
8 November Bristol St Michaels Centre. HeartEdge Day Gathering - 10am - 3pm - with Sam Wells and guests - click here to book in
21 November Edinburgh - Greyfriars Church. HeartEdge day - 10am - 3pm with Sam Wells and guests - click to book in.

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Belle and Sebastian - We Were Beautiful.

Sunday, 20 August 2017

Inspired to Follow: Art and the Bible Story

As part of our content partnership with Greenbelt this year St Martin-in-the-Fields will be launching 'Inspired to Follow: Art and the Bible Story', an exciting new discipleship resource, with three exclusive ‘Inspired to Follow’ taster sessions. My colleague Alastair McKay has explained more in a post on the Greenbelt website - click here to read.

Alastair will be showcasing three sessions of ‘Inspired to Follow’ at GB17, in collaboration with Ayla Lepine an art historian and ordinand, on Saturday, Sunday and Monday of the festival. The sessions – a cross between workshop and educational event – are being offered in the new Canvas venue on the ‘other side of the lake’.

‘Inspired to Follow’ offers a space for us to explore together what it means to follow Jesus in today’s world. So there’s more questions than answers, as well as pointers to where answers can be found in God’s journey with us – through both the Biblical story and our journey in today’s world. Perhaps the best news is that all the materials for the 22-session course are provided free, in return for registering your details.

In addition, St Martin in the Fields will also be bringing Great Sacred Music to Greenbelt this year and I will be contributing to a session entitled Cathedrals and commerce: The challenge facing large churches. This will be in The Exchange, a new venue for 2017 that will be an oportunity to think together over the weekend about enterprise for the common good. On Bank Holiday Monday at 1.00pm, a panel chaired by Cliff Mills, will explore the reality that large churches are getting involved in enterprise activity to stay open and asking didn't Jesus turn over the tables of the money changers, so how can we find the right way through commerce and cathedrals? I will talk about these questions in relation to HeartEdge, together with The Very Revd John Witcombe, Dean of Coventry Cathedral, Alison Inglis-Jones from the Trussell Trust, and Jonny Gordon-Farleigh from Stir to Action.

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Pēteris Vasks - Lord, Open Our Eyes.

Friday, 4 August 2017

Church Times: Where Love & Sorrow Meet, A fractious and yet fruitful embrace & From the Polish spirit

This week's edition of Church Times has much that is of interest beginning with its report on the commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, which reduced the grounds on which homosexual men could be sent to prison. This includes 'Where Love & Sorrow Meet', a service in St Martin-in-the-Fields, which looked forward as well as back. Click here to read the addresses from that service, including a powerful sermon from Mark Oakley.

Ayla Lepine, an art historian and ordinand, reflects on the idea of the artist-in-residence, and looks at some examples of how it works for churches. Ayla, with Alastair McKay, will also be facilitating taster sessions at Greenbelt from the new online interactive discipleship resource from St Martin-in-the-Fields and the National Gallery, ‘Art and the Bible Story: Inspired to Follow’, which looks at the Biblical story through fine art paintings.

I enter into the world of Polish émigré art, and its link to the hospice pioneer Dame Cicely Saunders, through a review of Art Out of the Bloodlands at Ben Uri Gallery. I have written a wide range of pieces of émigré artists, particularly Polish artists in Britain, and these supplementary articles and posts can be found at:

In this review I note that the current exhibition of Polish art at the Ben Uri Gallery, a recent exhibition by Jamaican artists at St Stephen Walbrook, and the current exhibition “I Am” of work by Middle Eastern women artists at St Martin-in-the-Fields (until 20 August) — all opened within days of each other. London is nothing if not cosmopolitan, and the churches continue to contribute to that diversity and our reflection upon it.

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London Gay Men's Chorus - Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Monday, 31 July 2017

St Martin-in-the-Fields, HeartEdge and Greenbelt

St Martin-in-the-Field's is going to Greenbelt this year and will be offering three programme elements. Alastair McKay will be showcasing three sessions of Inspired to Follow / Art and Bible Story (see http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/…/st-martin-in-the-fields-insp…/). Andrew Earis will be leading three choral sessions (see http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/…/st-martin-in-the-fields-grea…/) and I will be participating in The Exchange, on the Monday, sharing stories about the use of social enterprise for the common good (see http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/artists/cliff-mills/).

Alastair McKay and Ayla Lepine will facilitate taster sessions from the new online interactive discipleship resource from St Martin-in-the-Fields and the National Gallery, ‘Art and the Bible Story: Inspired to Follow’, which looks at the Biblical story through fine art paintings. Alastair McKay is a half-time priest at St Martin-in-the-Fields, who also works as an adult educator, facilitator, and coach with clergy and church groups, having previously headed up Bridge Builders for nearly 20 years. He is passionate about helping people to learn and grow. Ayla Lepine is a Fellow in Art History at the University of Essex and an ordinand at Westcott House. She has taught at the Courtauld, Yale, and King’s College London, and has published widely on the intersections across theology and the arts.

Singers from St Martin-in-the-Fields, with their Director of Music Andrew Earis, explore through word and song some of the great music of our religious heritage. Three years ago St Martin-in-the-Fields launched a weekly event called ‘Great Sacred Music’. Taking place each Thursday lunchtime, the 35 minute long sequence explores through word and song some of the great music of our religious heritage.

The Exchange will be open for business throughout the Festival. Go there to think together over the weekend about enterprise for the common good. With Ryan Rushton from Co-op Energy, Vivian Woodell from the Phone Co-op and David Alcock from Anthony Collins Solicitors. David Alcock is Head of Social Business at Birmingham law firm Anthony Collins Solicitors, where he works with community organisations, social enterprises, co-operatives, charities and faith groups. David is a specialist in governance issues in the third sector and is also at the forefront of developing innovative mutual models of delivering public services. He has advised numerous organisations on governance and contractual matters at board level, as well as training new and potential board members on their duties and responsibilities. He also helped develop good practice in community asset transfer, and resident-led estate regeneration.

On Monday at 1:00 PM, the Exchange session will be Cathedrals and commerce: The challenge facing large churches. Large churches are getting involved in enterprise activity to stay open – but didn’t Jesus turn over the tables of the money changers? How can we find the right way through commerce and cathedrals? With The Very Revd John Witcombe, Dean of Coventry Cathedral, Alison Inglis-Jones from the Trussell Trust, Jonny Gordon-Farleigh from Stir to Action, Rev Jonathan Evens from the HeartEdge project at St Martin-in-the-Fields. Chaired by Cliff Mills, Anthony Collins Solicitors.

Cliff Mills is a solicitor who writes constitutions for co-operative, mutual and member-based organisations. These have included the leading retail co-operatives societies, NHS Foundation Trusts, tenant and employee-owned social housing providers, and a range of other sectors including leisure services, community health, primary care, youth services, community shops, energy and probation. He has been involved in the modernisation of co-operative and community benefit society legislation, and the development of new forms of ownership for public services. He has undertaken governance reviews for the Co-operative Group, Post Office Limited and other organisations in the media, IT and healthcare. He is the joint author of the Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade, the high-level strategy document for the International Co-operative Alliance.

Enterprise, faith and community seem to be intersecting with each other with increasing frequency and regularity in the modern world. Some might see this in terms of “markets, state and church”, but in a Greenbelt context it’s more about how these things come together in our own lives: in our places of work and education, as consumers, volunteers and as members of our secular and faith communities. There is more overlapping, with these apparently different areas spilling over into each other.

In this session titled “Cathedrals and Commerce”, we want to explore the two subjects contained in the title, but we want to approach them from the starting point of what’s going on at the grass-roots, and how enterprise, faith and community are coming together and crossing over. We have four speakers who are each going to give us their own insight on this, two from outside the church, two from inside. These four speakers will provide food for our own thought and reflection – and subsequent discussion about “Cathedrals and Commerce; the challenges they face”; with one eye on the door in case somebody marches in and decides to turn over the tables of the money changers once again.

Anthony Collins Solicitors are also partnering HeartEdge in one of three regional events this autumn to be held in Birmingham, Bristol and Edinburgh. Hosted by Rev Dr Sam Wells, these 'At the Heart. On the Edge.' events will include theology, ideas, solutions and support. In Birmingham, the programme has been developed by Anthony Collins Solicitors, Birmingham Churches Together, St Martin in the Bull Ring and Thrive Together Birmingham.

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Kate Rusby - Life In A Paper Boat.