visual theology

Art Residency starts tomorrow

Tomorrow is the start of a two day conference of the Council for World Mission Caribbean members forum and I’ll be attending from the UK as artist. I so look forward to it! Amongst all my work, this is my most favourite.. CWM’s focus is about Life Flourishing Communities - what does it take for any community to turn into something in which life isn’t just existing, but flourishing? It’s an excellent question and I look forward to thoughts from colleagues a world away from my own.

Usually for a residency gig, I rock up with a wheeled case including my drawing board, a range of paper or scrolls and a large selection of pens and watercolour pencils. For the United Reformed Church General Assembly in 2012, I turned up with three large canvasses and my whole selection of paints and brushes! This will be different. I’ll be sitting in my studio watching and listening with Zoom. Rather than using my physical art supplies, I’ll be using the amazing program designed for the Microsoft Surface, my absolute device of choice. For illustrations, I use Adobe Illustrator, but for as physical experience as I can get for a digital device, I use Sketchable. With it, I have all my pencils, pens of many descriptions, paint, brushes and the ability to blend across tools as I have always done when I use a pen to make my watercolour pencils into soft paint.

I’ll do what I always do - listen, draw, perhaps add a few words, draw some more. At the end of each day, I’ll share the digital image by sharing my screen, and I’ll explain my reflections on what I hear. It will be interesting and wonderful to hear from a culture which is not my own and to reflect back what I believe I hear in a way which is, hopefully, cross cultural. I’ll keep you up do date with what happens!

I’ve uploaded a tea pot picture from a residency during a rural ministry conference a number of years ago. Conversation showed that often, the biggest thing rural churches can offer is peaceful hospitality. My mind came up with this!

teapot church.jpg

It's been a while

So, dear readers. It has been a while. Life has been more than busy with social benefit organisation projects, painting, illustrations, teaching and all the rest. Much of all of our lives have changed. We are now embracing the reality of co-existing with something we know might make us ill or end our lives significantly earlier than anticipated. In truth, we’ve always co-existed with such danger, but that co-existence has not been so obvious for some of our privileged selves.

In the middle of all of that, I’ve decided to significantly increase my presence in the visual theology world. I believe we need images to speak to us in ways more profound than many of the words we may use.

I’m also increasing my project manager presence. Social and public sector projects are hit deeply by the significant changes right now. If I can bring a little peace in the chaos, I’ll do it.

And, I’m intending to be much more vocal about the expansive, inclusive progressive God I know. A certain kind of ‘God’ has been hugely misused and appropriated by people with personal agendas which show anything but love and justice. This makes me angry. So I’ll be writing things about that.

So this is a new website. It combines all that I am because I’m tired of being silos inside myself, trying to figure out which one of me is to be in focus at any one time.

Please contact me if you would like prints. The following formats are available. All prints on paper are sold on ivory mounting board. Frames may be ordered. Prints on canvas are stretched on wood.

Art Prints: Art Prints are created with laser printers onto quality wood pulp art paper.

Gallery Poster: Gallery Poster is a typical art gallery format with laser printer on poster paper, supplied rolled in a tube.

Giclee Prints: Giclee Prints are inkjet sprayed onto quality cotton rag paper. They’re known for their vibrant colours, fine details, and archival quality. The term "giclee" comes from the French word meaning "to spray," referring to the precise inkjet spraying process used in their production. They’re guaranteed to last at least 100 years (though no one’s been alive long enough since development to know…)

Embellished Giclee Prints: Embellished Giclee Prints are customised by me adding details, textures, or hand-drawn elements to make each cotton paper print unique. The result is a print that combines the advantages of digital printing with a personal touch.

Giclee Prints on Canvas: Giclee Prints are inkjet sprayed onto artist canvas material. This gives the print a texture and appearance similar to a traditional painting on canvas so that they resemble original paintings.

Embellished Giclee Prints on Canvas: Embellished Giclee Prints on Canvas are customised by me adding details, textures, or hand-painted elements to make each print unique. Embellishments added on top of canvas give the print a more three-dimensional painterly effect.