From New Farm, you are a short journey from the beautiful village of Lacock where we’re delighted to have 4 of our artists exhibiting in St Cyriac’s Church, including an exhibition from the children of Lacock Primary School.
Sheona is a fine art photographer and researcher, working with digital and alternative photographic processes to explore religious or historical themes. Sheona has worked with different photographic processes for over 20 years: black and white analogue, disposable cameras, cyanotypes, lenticular photography. Sheona also enjoys writing too – mainly about photographers and interpretation of images. She founded Visual Theology last year with a friend, to offer a creative and sensitive platform for shared study into images’ spirituality. Sheona keeps coming back to the way artists imagine things differently, and traditionally in Western art this was often about God – so Sheona is asking whether photography can do that too. Recently Alys Tomlinson won the Sony World Photographer of the Year for a series of images about pilgrimage, and Sheona was involved in curating her work at Chichester Cathedral in March 2019 – which she found hugely inspiring.
Sheona is inspired by seeing other artists delight in their craft – that wisdom that comes from knowing something well, being unhurried and respectful towards your materials, this she finds deeply moving. Sheona also gets charged up by reading about photography – the greats like Roland Barthes, but also philosophical writers who try and get to grips with the magic of visual representation.
Taking part in the Peacock Arts Trail is very important to Sheona – “personally it encourages a step-up in my self-identification as an artist, and having the chance to ‘showcase’ what I do is great – especially in the church as a place of welcome and openness”.
Based in Lacock, Victoria has spent 25 years exclusively painting in oils. She works from a log cabin studio in her back garden, preferring a north-facing workspace, which allows her to see the colours of her paint more reliably. She is inspired by Natural History – from the microscopic to the magnificent, fashion and textiles and anything slightly imperfect.
Victoria describes the most favourite part of my work as “finishing a painting I might have poured 100+ hours of my life into and being 100% happy with it”.
Lacock Church of England Primary School presents and celebrates the work of children aged 5-11yrs. The artists explore the theme of unity, building on a year of commemorating the end of the First World War. Creativity, a key school value, shines through their colourful imagination and multimedia.
Annie is a a stained glass artist who is passionate about drawing, painting and making stained glass. Influenced by nature and the natural world in all it’s wonder. Annie loves to draw animals and insects, plants trees and flowers and this year she has painted many different birds on paper and for stained glass windows.
A typical day for Annie involves opening her studio either continuing a stained glass project or starting one which would involve designing before any glass can be chosen to be cut and painted. Annie also works out on site in churches, people’s homes and historic buildings, repairing or installing old or new work.
Annie is currently finishing a large project at St Cyriac’s, in Lacock of cleaning and repairing all glass leaded lights. She has also replaced some beautiful painted glass pieces that were completely broken – “it is really satisfying to renew these ancient windows to stand the test of time”. Annie feels inspired by designing and drawing. “I have persevered over many years and each year that goes by I seem to achieve more”.
