International Times: Broomfield

My latest poem to be published by International Times is entitled 'Broomfield' and is part of a series of poems on thin places and sacred spaces in Essex called 'Four Essex Trios'. 

The first poem in the sequence to be written - 'Runwell' - was published by Amethyst Review and has just been included in the Amethyst Press anthology, Thin Places and Sacred Spaces,  The other two poems in this sequence - 'Bradwell' and 'Pleshey' - will be published shortly by International Times and  Amethyst Review.

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. My poem reviews their stories, work, legacy and motivations.

For more on the artists of Broomfield, all of whom are commemorated there with blue plaques, see here, here, here, here and here. I will be giving a talk on 'Rosemary Rutherford's Religious Art' at St Mary with St Leonard Broomfield in November, together with Kathy Rouse (see below).

My earlier pieces for IT are an interview with the poet Chris Emery, an interview with Jago Cooper, Director of the the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, plus reviews of: Mavis Staples in concert at Union Chapel; T Bone Burnett's 'The Other Side' and Peter Case live in Leytonstone; Helaine Blumenfeld's Together exhibition, What Is and Might Be and then Otherwise by David Miller; 'Giacometti in Paris' by Michael Peppiatt, the first Pissabed Prophet album - 'Zany in parts, moving in others, you’ll be hard pressed to find a more unusual, inspired & profound album this year. ‘Pissabed Prophet’ will thrill, intrigue, amuse & inspire' - and 'Religion and Contemporary Art: A Curious Accord', a book which derives from a 2017 symposium organised by the Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art.

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 a poem, The ABC of creativity, which covers attention, beginning and creation.

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Maria McKee - Breathe.

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. 

Rosemary Rutherford, Cedric Morris, Arthur Lett-Haines

Following a visit to Gainsborough's House in Sudbury to see their new exhibition 'Revealing Nature' on the art of  Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines, I travelled on in Suffolk to see work by Rosemary Rutherford at St Mary Boxford, St Mary the Virgin Walsham-le-Willows, and St Mary Hinderclay.

The exhibition is the first to chart the phenomenal artistic careers of Morris and Lett-Haines, who were partners in love and art for sixty years. Morris is celebrated not only for his flower paintings and still lives but also for portraits and landscapes, and Lett-Haines is revealed as an important figure in developing Surrealist art in Britain. 

Based in Suffolk for most of their lives, primarily at Benton End, they established the East Anglian School for Painting and Drawing in 1937 which taught a generation of artists including Lucian Freud and Maggi Hambling. Rutherford was another who attended the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing at Benton End, visiting regularly in 1950s and 60s and gaining much inspiration from Morris and Lett-Haines.

Life with Art: Benton End and the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing was an exhibition at Firstsite Gallery that showcased the inspiring role Benton House played in influencing the artists who lived and worked there, celebrating the beauty of the East Anglian scenery and the importance of creative spaces. Susan Gray, in an exhibition review for Church Times, noted that 'Rosemary Rutherford is one of Benton End’s rediscovered stars.'

Rutherford studied art in Chelmsford and at the Slade in London in the 1930s. She also trained in the art of true fresco. She was a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) Red Cross nurse during the second world war and created a large portfolio of sketches and paintings of all she observed in hospitals, both at home and in Sri Lanka.

She learnt stained glass making and created 40 windows, including four in Broomfield church, where her father was Rector, to replace those shattered by bombing. She was deeply religious and her spirituality guided her artworks. Her fresco at Broomfield church shows ‘Christ Stilling the Storm’ and was surely intended to give people hope during the frightening turmoil of wartime.

Rutherford is perhaps most widely known for her stained glass windows, mostly in churches, throughout East Anglia and further afield from Yorkshire to Sussex and even in New Zealand. The exhibition features a montage of many of her windows showing her versatility of style and subject. Her love of bright, bold colours is evident both in the east window of Broomfield church, in her earlier figurative designs and in the more abstract compositions at Boxford and in windows made posthumously to her designs at Hinderclay in Suffolk.

Project Rutherford at St Mary with St Leonard Broomfield centres on the preservation and conservation of Rutherford’s special mural in the Norman round tower, St Mary’s unique 20th century fresco. Its protection within the tower and its promotion has involved replacement of the spire shingles, repair of the spire’s wooden framework, repointing of the round tower, conservation of the fresco itself and outreach to all church users and to the wider community in bringing the fresco, and Rosemary Rutherford, ‘out into the open’.

To bring the life and works of this remarkable but largely forgotten artist to the attention of the wider community, a permanent exhibition was opened in 2023. This exhibition summarises Rosemary’s life and extraordinary artistic achievements. Models reveal how fresco and stained glass are made. Some of her remarkable range of drawings and paintings are shown, including wartime artwork and flower paintings. Her spiritual, caring nature and brilliant artistry shine through.

This permanent exhibition can be viewed during church opening times, currently Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:30 to 12:30 and after Sunday services.

I will be giving a People and Stone talk, together with Kathy Rouse, about the war art and religious art of Rosemary Rutherford at St Mary Broomfield on Saturday 2 November 2024.

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Iona - Heaven's Bright Sun.