Rowley Gallery Blog
On Saturday 2nd March we opened a new window display of pictures by Jonathan Gibbs, and despite our usual habit of not having a launch party, Jonathan promised to bring his guitar along, so how could we refuse. He also produced these gorgeous invitation cards. Please call in if you’re passing. Go out of your way if you’re not. We’d love to see you. Continue reading “Paintings From My Shed”
“so now we see the cat is a shadow of the Virgin Mary. It is that part of the female nature that the Virgin Mary did not represent but would belong to a complete image of the feminine“
Marie-Louse Von Franz
The principle driving forces behind creating this new body of work were two interlocking books, Psychology and Alchemy by Carl Jung and The Cat by Marie-Louise Von Franz.
Drawing from these two sources created a framework from which I could project various scenes and scenarios.
There are seven stages of spiritual alchemy; if a person can complete them, it is thought that they will reach an enlightened form of consciousness. There are parallels here to Buddhism and Hinduism. Continue reading “The Cat Becomes A Fountain & Other Stories”
We’ve a windowful of wonderful engravings from Beatrice Forshall for June and July. Many were used to illustrate her new book, a glorious celebration of life on Earth and a poignant reminder of the life we’ve extinguished. Continue reading “The Book Of Vanishing Species”
A birthday card for Dominic, my Rowley brother and fellow tree lover, drawn by his father in 1985 when he was just 21. Continue reading “Trees I Have Fallen Out Of…”
It’s April 2023, and I will be 70 years old. What better way to mark the occasion than to plant 70 trees, not in the ground, but in the window of the Rowley Gallery. I sent out a call to 70 artists and got lots of replies. I could plant a small forest. So here’s a small celebration of trees, of their variety and complexity, their shelter and enchantment, and all their green, filtered, numinous enlightenment. Continue reading “70 Trees”
Emi Shinmura came over from Berlin especially to install our latest window exhibition, and we are honoured to host her series of recent wood carvings – Seats For Deities – until the end of March. Continue reading “Seats For Deities”
Hollington’s Florilegium, paintings by David Hollington, a botanical alphabet, part 2: N to Z, in the window of the Rowley Gallery through January and February. They are accompanied by a selection of David’s miniature paintings, and a few words of introduction here below. Continue reading “Hollington’s Florilegium”
On Waiting – “even the painter is blind but he feels the necessity to see”. Film about the Dutch painter Bram van Velde who was a friend of the writer Samuel Beckett.
There’s a celebration of Don Cherry at the Barbican tonight (Don Cherry Tribute). Sadly I can’t go. So I’ll put this video here as a consolation. And today I’ll rummage through my CDs and I’ll shake the Cherrytree. Its fruits have many flavours and taste of many places. According to Richard Williams, “he collapsed the distance between the supposedly primitive and the supposedly sophisticated more effectively than any musician I can think of.”
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This film from 1978 is about Don and Moki Cherry and others who lived with them in the school house in Tågarp, Skåne, Sweden, in the 1970s and onwards. It includes sequences from SoHo, New York, and Moki Cherry’s textiles on the walls in Hästveda and Long Island City. With Rashied Ali, James Blood Ulmer, Nana Vasconcelos, Denis Charles, Huss Charles, etc. A film by Urban Lasson.
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If you enjoyed this you might also like to see For Don Cherry.