This is an art work by my cousin’s daughter – Anna Freeman
Bentley – who is extremely talented and recognised as one of Britain’s
brightest emerging painters of her generation.
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| The lower third of Anna's "Descent" |
I had heard Anna’s work Descent
was on show in Chichester Cathedral … which I can get to relatively easily …
and I had some friends in central Chichester to visit…
I need to return to the Cathedral at some stage … time was
limited … but I’ll show you Anna’s exhibit here … she’s always been interested
in architecture and structure … but studied art, literature and drama at
school.
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| Moreau's staircase which inspired Anna |
She’s won various awards and took up a studio residency with
the Florence Trust, London – housed in a deconsecrated Victorian Church in
Highbury.
It was for the final exhibition at the Trust, she decided to
make a work that related specifically to the architecture there … refining that
thought process after a visit to the Musee Gustave Moreau in Paris where .. she
saw Moreau’s Staircase …
 |
| The work was set up in the North Transept of Chichester Cathedral |
Jacob’s Ladder ‘Descent’
being set in a Victorian Church then exhibited at the Cathedral … was very
appropriate as it referenced the image of a staircase reaching down to earth
from heaven, a vision that came to Jacob in a dream.
Descent (2011) is an oil on 8 panels with tulipwood subframes,
110o x 182 (base) tapering to 91.5cm (top).
[36 feet x 6 feet tapering to 3 feet].
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| The book that highlights Anna's career |
Anna, no doubt, will continue to experiment with colour,
design … while engaging with the environment, architecture and interiors,
exploring and showing us the world as she sees it …
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| Gustave Moreau Museum ... with the staircase at the end. |
… the Gustave Moreau Museum in Paris, where Anna was inspired,
is an amazing looking museum … and the link below gives you an idea of why …
and why we should add it to our list of museums to visit at some stage.
Anna is following Moreau’s idea
of process to make her own views and process known to the wider world …
 |
| Pasque Flower |
Wishing you all a peaceful and blessed Easter … and this
thought goes to the wider world in general … let’s be gentler, kinder, more
understanding and more thoughtful in the years ahead …
An article on Gustave Moreau's Museum, Paris ... it will tempt you to visit ...
Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories
47 comments:
Beautiful church and art. Thank you for sharing.
Happy Easter, Hilary. Your cousin is very talented.
A very interesting piece.I always was intrigued by spiral staircases until I got tall and had to maneuver to get up and down.Hope you have a peaceful holiday, I am eating breakfast in a park today and then driving 75 miles to eat some rabbit in dill sauce.
Happy Easter. Your cousin's daughter's work is excellent and she is very talented. Have a good day Diane
That is one impressive piece of work! Have a wonderful Easter, Hilary.
It must be very exciting to have such a talented person in the family. Happy Easter, Hilary.
What beautiful artwork! Happy Easter Hilary!
What an absolutely amazing piece of work - and a brilliant place to display it.
I hope your Easter was lovely, and echo your hopes for a kinder, gentler world.
Captivating art, and amazing backdrops. Hope your Easter Sunday was great! Off to check out the link.
Best,
Nila.
Congratulations to Anna! That is a huge piece of artwork and very ambitious.
Your cousin’s daughter is very talented. Those stairs are quite dynamic, if you can say that about stairs, but the work of art is – it makes us wish we could go up them. I hope you had a nice Easter.
I think Descent is as cool as can be.
Love,
Janie
What a talent Anna has! That museum would interest me very much, as does most things in Paris. Staircases can be very intriguing. Picasso also did a painting with ladies descending a staircase.
Hope your Easter was nice, ours was as both daughters came by for dinner and even helped make some of it. . .weather very mild here now. Hope all is well with you.
@ Marie – it is a magnificent Cathedral … while Anna’s art was shown at its best …
@ Anabel – thank you … she certainly is well recognised …
@ Steve – ah yes – being tall is difficult isn’t it and I can see a spiral staircase would present a few problems …
Lucky you having breakfast in a park … Friday was lovely – but the rest of the weekend has been pretty stormy. Rabbit sounds good and a dill sauce would be a very good accompaniment – we had a huge piece of beef … but there were 12 for a formal lunch.
@ Karen – I’m glad you appreciated Anna’s work …
@ Diane – her work seemed to suit an Easter posting …
@ Ian – as a visual artist yourself – you’d appreciate Anna’s art …
@ Beste – sadly I don’t see much of her or her work … but I see her mother fairly often … so keep in touch that way …
@ Paula – thank you …
@ EC – yes I’m not sure how the Cathedral space came about … but she has lots of contacts and guidance from the art world …
We definitely need a kinder, gentler, more understanding world …
@ Nila – thank you … I must get back to the Cathedral again and see more of Anna’s work in due course - when she has another exhibition …
@ Alex – many thanks … she’s a thoughtful artist … and the work is enormous.
@ Vagabonde – good to see you … the staircase worked so well – I wished I’d had more time there to look at the work more deeply … even though it’s called Descent – it does make us want to climb up doesn’t it ..
@ Janie – many thanks …
@ DG – I know your love of Paris and perhaps one day you’ll get to the Museum. Picasso is mentioned … but I didn’t pursue that thread … I must look though …
So pleased your daughters were able to visit you and spend some time … that must have be a great treat for you and your hubby. It’s stormy here … but also not cold, unless we’re caught in a squally shower … then it’s unpleasant.
Cheers everyone ... and I too hope you all had happy family Easters … Hilary
Anna is certainly very talented - an amazing, beautiful piece.
Wonderfully creative, Hilary. I like the way she integrates the architecture into the art piece. What talent! I hope you are enjoying your Easter Monday!
She is very talented! Love that.
Happy Easter Monday!
Hope you had a lovely Easter! What a gorgeous painting.
Amazing and beautiful work!!! Thanks for sharing. Happy Easter (yesterday) to you!
Wow, how beautiful, a talented lady, thanks for sharing Anna's work with us.
Wishing you a blessed Easter time too.
What a talented lady. I would love to visit that museum someday.
Anna is indeed very talented. Thank you for introducing her. I'll made attention and check her other works out. I admire painters, and would love to be able to create such works.
I loved the flow of Anna's painting. It spoke of spirits and light. Beautiful. Isn't is wonderful how one artist influences another across the years?
Hope your Easter was splendid.
@ Annalisa – she certainly as the gene …
@ Val – yes, the book on her work highlights some amazing information about how she has evolved …
@ Lynn – yes exactly … it’s wonderful when someone is so talented …
@ Vanessa – good to see you …
@ Christine – hope you and your little one enjoyed their eggs …
@ Teresa – it is a stunning work …
@ Suzanne – talented lady as you state …
@ Susan – she is continually re-evaluating her artistic development …
@ Joylene – that’s great you’ll check to see some of the other things she does – she is stretching her boundaries …
@ Lee – I’m sure Anna will be delighted with your comment … I too was interested in the fact Gustave Moreau’s art and ideas influenced her so much …
Thanks to you all – Easter has been fun … we have had freezing rain, but at least the sun shone in between … cheers Hilary
Wow, is Anna simply bursting with talent! I love her use of colour and lines. Thanks for sharing her art with us.
P.S. I found you on Susan Reinhardt's blog...
It's wonderful to see such talent!
Oh my... stunning!
Wow, Anna's work is very nice! And you can say that you are related to her, so perhaps you contributed to the creative genes. :) For you are creative in your own right, you know. Thanks for sharing this with us. Wishing Anna much success!
Anna's work is beautiful and I love her inspiration as well.
So much beauty! Thanks so much for sharing.
You must be proud to have such an amazing talent in the family I love the image of a staircase and it's reference of reaching down from heaven.
@ Jeanette - thanks for coming over from Susan's ... good to see you - and yes Anna has lots of talent ... your knowledge of art is way better than mine! ...
@ Liza - yes lucky lady .. and she's using it wisely ...
@ Bish - that's what I thought when I saw it in Chichester Cathedral ... stunning ...
@ Karen - my grandfather had the genes - both he and his sister were talented artists ... my great aunt exhibited at the Royal Academy ... while my grandfather was a renowned engineer ... I'm sure Anna will do really well ...
@ Holly - she is certainly inspired and does really well ...
@ JL - good to see you ...
@ Marja - we are lucky ... there is talent on both sides of the family ... and I too loved the reference to the staircase reaching down from Heaven.
Thanks so much ... good to see you and all the best this coming week - as we wind up to the A-Z ... cheers Hilary
She is very talented ! Beautiful works !
How lovely that you were able to see the work of your cousin's daughter. An inspiring piece in itself. Art and architecture are intrinsically joined it seems. My own daughter, an artist and designer in her own right, recently told me that she wished she had trained as an architect. My husband also shares this interest and would have done so had he not gone into engineering, itself a link of course. What am I talking about? Art is all encompassing and can be linked to anything.
I wish your cousin's daughter, every success!
Anna is very talented! I really like, "Descent." It's very creative.
Such talent! Amazing.
Thanks for sharing! She's very blessed!
I hope your Easter was full of family and friends and chocolate!
Those staircases are all so cool. If I had a big house, I'd want a spiral staircase. The piece set up in Chichester Cathedral is really neat.
How lovely to have such a talented artist in your family.
Needed to blink once, twice, and then one more time. What a talented young woman!
Hilary, Anna is very imaginative and talented like her cousin! I love the lines in the painting which almost creates a 3D effect!
Julie
WOW!!Fantastic artwork. I'd love to sink into the painting a climb those stairs. It really gets the imagination flowing. Congratulations Anna! Thanks so much for sharing that Hilary. I now have a place to visit when I next visit - if it's still there. I'll definitely tell my mom to go check it out. I don't think Chichester is too far from her.
@ Gattina - she certainly seems to be very respected and talented ..
@ Debbie - it's interesting how many of the disciplines can be crossed over and intertwined in works produced/ designed/ engineered ... Anna's great grandfather and my grandfather were bridge designers of note ... so I can see the link. My grandfather's sister exhibited at the RA ... it is certainly in the family ...
Thanks it seems as though Anna's future is secure in the art world .. .
@ Sherry - many thanks ... Anna is a thoughtful, piercing artist ... and as you say creative ...
@ Yolanda - she certainly is very blessed ... and I'm sure her talent will shine through. Easter was happy - without too much chocolate!
@ Chrys - Anna's plagiarism of Moreau's work is fascinating - we all change up our writings, our illustrations etc .. and here's an artist taking inspiration from a French Symbolist painter ...
As Steve says - don't be tall, or have a tall husband, with a spiral staircase - unless you have the space for a wide spiral!
@ Terra - good to meet you ... yes the family is lucky ... and I must take closer interest now ... the family are not that near ...
@ Susan - thanks for coming by - yes it's a piece that captivates the eye ... and it was very tall ...
@ Julie - THANKYOU .. I am definitely not in the same category ... I'd like to be .. and I'm learning by being here! I'd love to be able to draw or paint - sadly it's not one of my characteristics ... but I agree you feel you can step onto the ladder ... or step off it, if you are descending ...
@ Nicola - certainly one could so easily get immersed in the journey down or the journey up ...
Sadly - the artwork is no longer there ... I'll have to find out where it is ... but I think Anna only has her studio space - I'll find out in the summer (when her mother visits) ...
Thanks so much to you all - Anna will be thrilled to know that her art is appreciated ... and that you can all see things within the art that give you inspiration ... cheers Hilary
Hilary, this is a spectacular art work, & thank you for showing it to us. I have a sculptor friend who has been working with the Jacob 's ladder theme, & I'm going to send her a link to this page.
Hi Juliet - I thought it was too .. and in situ looked amazing.
That's brilliant - if there's any feed back from your sculptor friend - we'd love to know ...
Thanks so much - cheers Hilary
Her work is absolutely lovely. Such a wonderful talent!
Thanks Rosey - she will be pleased to see all the comments ... good to see you here - cheers Hilary
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